Repeal begins

The New Straits Times
by Eileen Ng

First reading to abolish Banishment and Restricted Residence Acts today

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will table a motion to repeal the Banishment and Restricted Residence Acts for the first reading in Parliament today.

He said the second reading of the same laws would be tabled next Wednesday.

Addressing MCA’s 58th general assembly yesterday, the prime minister and Barisan Nasional chairman said tabling the motion to abolish both acts in the first week of the Dewan Rakyat meeting signified that the government was serious about political reforms.

Present at the function were MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, his deputy, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, leaders of other BN component parties and some 1,800 MCA members.

Najib had announced a series of historic reforms, which included repealing the Internal Security Act and replacing it with two new laws specifically to address terrorism and threats to national security, in his Sept 15 Malaysia Day message.

Yesterday, Najib said there ought to be a right kind of balance between human rights, civil liberties, public order and harmony.

“There must be this right balance.

We are going to have this right balance.

We can’t simply arrest or banish people. But if you destroy public order and security, there will still be laws to address this. This is our responsibility as leaders.” He said the government was not against peaceful demonstrations but any street demonstration could carry the risk of getting out of hand, as was evident during the recent London riots.

“It happened in London, supposedly the cradle of modern civil society.

You think it can’t happen in Malaysia? It’s my job, the government’s job, to ensure it does not happen here.” He said the government could provide stadiums and open spaces for those who wanted to show their dissent, where they could talk “until the cows come home”.

“This is the concept of balance. We must have the right balance, if not, the country will be in chaos.

“We are rational, sane. So we must have laws to protect the people,” he said, reiterating his pledge that no one would be arrested because of their political ideologies.

He warned that the full brunt of the law would be brought to bear on those who were out to cause chaos and disrupt public order and secur ity.

“So, if you use violent means to overthrow the government, or set fires to shops or incite racial or religious tension, then yes, that’s against the law.We are committed to Vision 2020, so we cannot afford to have any distractions.” The order paper for the Dewan Rakyat meeting today contains the first tabling of the motion to repeal the two acts.

The Banishment Act 1959 allows for non-citizens to be expelled and detained while the Restricted Residence Act 1933 provides for confinement or exclusion to a restricted area by an administrative order by the home minister and not pursuant to a judicial order by a court of law after a trial.

A person subjected to a restricted residence order under the act would, therefore, not have an opportunity to defend himself in any legal proceedings before the order was made.