POTA is government's drastic measure to combat IS

Several government members of Parliament regarded the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) as a pro-active measure of the government in curbing the spread of the threat of the IS militant group in the country.

Datuk Irmohizam Ibrahim (Kuala Selangor-BN) said the measure was timely seeing the threat of the group was becoming serious with the number of Malaysians joining the militant group at 61 people.

"We must not compromise and must impose firm and drastic action against any quarters supporting the militant IS group in this country regardless of race, religion, clan or politics.

"The group does not reflect the purity of Islam," he said when debating the motion of thanks to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah, at Dewan Rakyat, Monday.

The Cabinet had approved POTA to be tabled in Parliament this time specifically to tackle the threat of terrorism in the country.

As such, Irmohizam said the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia must intensify the monitoring of such groups in the social media as the group was more keen in using the medium to recruit new members, specifically the young generation.

Datuk Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (BN-Tanah Merah), on his part, suggested that the Home Ministry and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) cooperated to expose the deviations and cruelties of the IS militant movement to make people realise what they actually were.

He said, through the programme, the government could expose the IS struggle which was opposed to Islam other than explaining the real concept of jihad.