Home Minister will give lawmakers chance to discuss Sosma

PUTRAJAYA: Lawmakers will have their say when the Home Minister gathers them to talk about improvements to the Social Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2021, or Sosma.

Back in March, the law caused the government to suffer a historic shock defeat in Parliament when a motion on the detention of suspects was voted against.

Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said he is open to suggestions from Members of Parliament from both sides of the divide on how the Act could better serve the country.

“I am very open to this. But for now, we need to retable the (Sosma) motion and get it passed in Parliament.

“Once this is done, we can immediately sit down for discussions. I will initiate something,” he said yesterday.

On Wednesday, Hamzah tabled a motion in the Dewan Rakyat to revoke an earlier decision not to extend the detention period of suspects under Sosma.

The passing of the motion makes it possible for the ministry to retable a motion to extend Sosma, which is set to end on July 31. This is likely to happen on Tuesday.

During debate, the Opposition had said that lawmakers should come together to give views on how further improvements could be made to the Act.

Hamzah said among the areas that could be looked into is determining whether the time a person is being detained under Sosma will be determined by the crime the person allegedly committed.

“We shall figure this out later. We need to ensure the coming retabling gets passed,” he added.

During the last Dewan Rakyat meeting, the motion to extend the enforcement of subsection 4(5) of Sosma, which allows for the detention of suspects for up to 28 days without trial, was voted down by MPs.

The motion tabled by Hamzah on March 23 was to extend the subsection in Sosma for another five years beginning July 31. It was defeated after it was put to a vote following a heated debate.

At yesterday’s event, Hamzah commended the Immigration Department for achieving the two medium-term targets set for this year.

“It has exceeded one of the targets, having collected RM2.28bil in revenue, more than the RM1.4bil it has set its sights on,” he said.