Gov't: M'sia now worse than US mafia wars

PARLIAMENT The government is forced to include organised crime into the Security Offences and Special Measures Act (Sosma) because the gang situation is now very dire.

In fact, said Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, Malaysian gangsters are even more daring that American gangsters during the 1920s gangster wars.

"They dare to hold a public procession during the funeral of their gang member.

"Even the Mafia in the United states in the 1920s-1930s did not dare do so and did things in secret," he said when winding up during the committee stage of the debate.

The US mafia wars of that era is recorded as a notorious period of violence, which saw incidents such as the 1929 Valentine's Day massacre involving seven rival gangs, and the prominent gangster Al Capone.

This period was compared by the deputy minister to a funeral procession for a slain gang member which brought traffic to a standstill in Penang, last August.
Wan Junaidi added that the members of gangs declared illegal by police outnumber the Communist Party of Malaya insurgents.

“They (the communists) had access to weapons before but today, (the gangsters) have access to weapons far more sophisticated,” said the deputy minister, who served in the police during the insurgency.

“Our concern is the 20 million people out there, their worries and their fears.”

Gov’t can’t guarantee no wrongful arrest

Meanwhile, to a question by Khalid Samad (PAS-Shah Alam), Wan Junaidi said that the government cannot guarantee that no one will be wrongfully arrested under the Sosma.

“No government in the world can give this guarantee, but please believe that the government has no intention to mistreat (aniaya) anyone.

“The police or prosecutors will not act beyond limits, this I can guarantee, that they will play their roles well,” he said.

Khalid had raised the case of an individual who was arrested and remanded for 28 days, but released without charge.

After that, Khalid said, the police issued a “pathetic” letter “addressed to ‘whomever it may concern,” saying there is no evidence to charge him and that the police are “sorry for any inconvenience”.

“The only way to ensure the law is not abused for police to immediately pay compensation when it is found that someone has been wrongly arrested,” he said.

To this, Wan Junaidi said that those wrongly arrested are free to bring a civil case against the government for compensation.

‘Opposition funded by gangsters?’

Earlier, when debating in the second reading of the Bill, Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh (BN-Setiu) speculated that the reason Opposition MPs are so against the amendment is because they are bankrolled by gangsters.

“What I mean to say is that maybe you are anxious (about the amendment) because some of you are funded by criminal groups,” he said when asked to clarify by Opposition backbenchers.

Che Mohamad Zulkifly added that the amendment to Sosma may not even be used, like many existing provisions of the law, so there is no need to worry.

To this Khalid (right) asked: “Let me try to understand your argument, are you saying that even if the Sosma is amended, it won’t be used?

“What kind of argument is this? It is this logic which cannot be used,” he said.

The Bill, which is to include organised crime into the Sosma, which primary deals with terrorism, was passed by the Dewan Rakyat without amendment by voice vote.