Should we be worried about POTA?

So the POTA has been passed in Parliament. What is it? It’s the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2015 and it was passed after being debated for more than 12 hours.

In essence, it is a law that is to ‘prevent the conduct or support for acts of violence involving terrorist organization of a foreign country and for the control of persons affected by such act’.

But it seems to be a very worrying bill because of the vagueness in it’s definitions and the absolute power it gives to the police and the authorities with disregard for the judiciary.

Some of the worrying points of the bill include the fact that it still means that the police can detain an individual without trial and just based on suspicion.

Also, there will be a ruling board headed by an appointed inquiry officer who seems to be very powerful and influential in determining what happens to the detained or suspected individual.

Another very worrying point is that there will be no judicial review allowed, which basically means that no court can change any decision made by the POTA authorities.

And most worrying of all is that although it says that POTA will not be used to curb political activity, the exact definition of political activity isn’t clear and can be debated very subjectively.

Read also: The definition of The Prevention Of Terrorism Bill 2015 (POTA)

In fact, many academics and politicians (from both sides of the divide) have expressed that POTA will not be ideal in actually combatting terrorist activities.

Umno’s Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah who is also the head of the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation, has said that POTA treats the symptom and not the disease.

He added, in an interview with The Malaysian Insider, that what is needed is a more holistic approach where a strategy needs to be formed that addresses issues related to socio-politics.

Basically, Saifuddin is saying is that we need to understand why people are willing to resort to terrorist activities and when we do, we need to know how to discourage that.

Saifuddin also states that the excessive use of the Sedition Act in recent weeks and months, it means that POTA will start off with a negative perception from the public.

This is also somewhat echoed by Universiti Sains Malaysia Criminology Faculty’s Associate Professor Dr. Sundramoorthy Pathmanathan in an interview with Astro AWANI.

He feels that the main solution is prevention, and education is the key because POTA really only targets individuals and groups that are already active in terrorist activities.

Dr. Sundramoorthy also realises the fact that there are a lot of Malaysians who fear that there will be a misuse of the law as how they perceive the ISA has been misused.

Of course, the ruling government argues that POTA is needed because of the danger and risk that the country is facing in the current climate and that even the USA has the Patriot Act.

However, even with the Patriot Act being implemented and enforced for years now, we are still witnessing the rapid rise of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

And just like the debate about the Patriot Act in the USA, is the risk that we are facing from the threat of extremism so bad that it means we need to sacrifice personal liberties and human rights?

The ruling government has also said that those who are innocent need not worry about POTA because it will only be used to go against those who are wrong.

But, with the vague definition of what is accepted by POTA, who is to say what activity is considered innocent or not? And that is what the issue really is all about.

So although the bill has been passed in parliament, albeit a 12 hour debate and strong resistance from the Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers, there will be many who are worried of the coming effects.