KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 13 — The Prevention of Terrorism (Pota) Bill and the amendments to the Sedition Act 1948 should have gotten ample time for debate before they were passed by Dewan Rakyat, the Senators' Council said today.
Senator Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman said that the laws, which were passed by repeatedly extending the hours of the lower house past midnight, needed careful dissection as they were of great significance and concerned national security.
“My opinion is that such important laws should be debated properly, and enough time should be allocated for discussions,” Abdul Rahim said.
However, he said that the high number of Bills submitted for debate this time around was overwhelming and this needed lawmakers to be debate them quickly.
“I feel that the MPs are responsible and I am sure they have given their best,” he said, adding that he felt Pota was necessary to address the threat of Islamic State (IS) here.
When pressed to respond on the controversial amendments to the Sedition Act, Abdul Rahim said that the Council needed time to deliberate on the matter.
The Pota was passed without amendment at the Dewan Rakyat at about 2.25am on April 7 after a debate of more than 12 hours.
The Bill was passed after the ninth block voting, with the final voting favouring the government when 79 MPs from Barisan Nasional (BN) supported the Bill while 64 MP from PR rejected it.
On Thursday, the Sedition (Amendment) Bill 2015 was voted through after a record 14 hours of debate in the Dewan Rakyat.
Both laws needed Parliament’s clock to be stopped as sessions ran well past the daily cut-off point at midnight.
Pota revives preventive detention without trial that went away after the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) was abolished while the amendments to the Sedition Act have been criticised as the “most serious assault on freedom of speech” Malaysia has ever witnessed.
