Malaysia Lifts Security Law, Student Politics Ban

Jakarta Globe, November 24, 2011

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Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak repealed another security law on Thursday, setting the stage for thousands detained without trial to be freed or face criminal charges. He also pledged to lift a student politics ban in line with promises to expand civil liberties ahead of polls widely expected to be called within months.

Najib has been scrapping or amending a range of decades-old laws criticized as oppressive and outdated in an attempt to win back voters, who dealt the government its worst election results ever three years ago.

Opposition leaders and activists claim the reform pledges are election ploys which do not herald any real change.

“All our moves are the result of the government’s respect for the people’s aspirations and listening and responding to the pulse of the people,” Najib told parliament in a rare televised address.

“It is not cheap rhetoric or false promises; it is one of taking a brave moral stand.”

Najib said the government was withdrawing three emergency declarations, which allow for detention without trial and date back to racial riots in 1969, saying they were no longer relevant.

“The repeal will not affect the government’s ability to prevent crime or any other matter that may threaten the security or the economy or public safety,” he said, adding that the declarations would expire within six months, giving authorities until then to either charge or free those held.

Police say more than 700 people have been detained under the Emergency Ordinance this year alone. Some 6,000 are currently held, according to the UN Human Rights Council.

Activists have long lobbied for the law to be abolished, saying it is increasingly used to hold suspected petty criminals without due process.

In his address, Najib also said he would amend a provision forbidding students from participating in politics, which critics say stifles academic freedom.

He said students above the age of 21 would be allowed to join political parties “to respect the rights of undergraduates”.

He also defended a proposed new law, the Peaceful Assembly Bill, that the opposition says cracks down on the right to peaceful protest rather than safeguarding it by banning street demonstrations.

Najib’s coalition has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957, often with an iron fist.

But yielding to increasing demands for greater civil liberties and trying to regain support, Najib has promised to break with the country’s authoritarian past.

Opposition leaders and activists are questioning whether a slew of reforms announced by Najib are sincere or whether he will amend old laws but keep the same restrictions in place.

Earlier this month, police announced they detained 13 suspected militants on Borneo island under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which also allows detention without trial and Najib has pledged to repeal.

Critics say the fresh arrests under the security act undermined Najib’s promise to do away with it. The government says the detentions were necessary to protect the country’s security.

Agence France-Presse