KUALA LUMPUR: More than 6,000 people were detained under the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (POCA) from January 2018 up until 2022 when its enforcement was suspended, says the Home Affairs Ministry.
The ministry said the the Act, which served as a preventive law to detain individuals without going through the usual court process, saw 6,176 people detained throughout the six-year period from 2018 (1,364), 2019 (1,707), 2020 (1,963), 2021 (1,012), and 2022 (130).
“No detentions under POCA were made in 2023 and 2024 as its enforcement was suspended following a Federal Court ruling in April 2022,” it said in a Parliamentary written reply dated Wednesday (Dec 11).
The ministry revealed that those detained in 2018 were mostly aged between 19 to 29 years old with 739 detainees with Malays making up the majority of detainees at 665, 1,328 of them being male and 1,308 being Malaysians
This trend of the majority of detainess once again being between 19 to 29 years old Malaysian Malay males continued throughout the rest of its enforcement until 2021.
In 2019, majority of detainess once again were between 19 to 29 years old (945), Malays (652), male (1,657) and Malaysian (1,296).
2020 saw 1,048 detainess being between 19 to 29 years old, 742 Malays, 1,884 males and 1,577 being Malaysians.
Of the 1,012 detaines in 2021, 528 were aged between 19 to 29, 443 were Malays, 990 were male and 962 were Malaysians.
Due to POCA’s sudden suspension, 2022 was the only year that saw a difference in detainees’ composition with most of the detainees (72) aged between 30 to 49, Malay (66), male (124) and Malaysian (129).
The ministry was responding to a question from Chow Yu Hui (PH-Raub) who asked the ministry to provide statistics on detention, charges, and convictions under POCA from January 2018 to September 2024.
In April 2022, the Federal Court deemed Sections 4 and 15B of Poca unconstitutional, ruling that it violated the doctrine of separation of powers.
In response to the court’s decision, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah said the ministry had engaged in several engagement sessions with stakeholders earlier on Nov 20 this year.
Through these sessions, he said the ministry has since presented the proposed amendments to the Cabinet on Dec 13 last year, where they then received approval.
He added that the amendments to POCA would be tabled sometime in next year’s Parliament session.
