Select committee to convene emergency meeting on LTTE Sosma arrests - MP

The Special Select Committee on Defence and Home Affairs will be holding an emergency meeting on the arrests of seven people under Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) next week.

DAP MP Lim Lip Eng (photo), a member of the committee, further called for police to be summoned to this meeting to “answer” to the committee on its use of the controversial law.

“I have asked the chairman of the select committee, Nibong Tebal MP Mansor Othman for the said meeting to be held on an urgent basis due to the seriousness of the accusations.

“The police will have to answer to the select committee the need to use Sosma, a repressive and draconian law which the Pakatan Harapan government has pledged to repeal, on the seven who can be detained without trial for up to 28 days,” Lim, who is Kepong MP, said in a statement.

When contacted by Malaysiakini, Lim confirmed that Mansor had agreed to convene the meeting next week.

However, no specific date was given.

Yesterday, police arrested seven suspects with alleged links to the defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group in Sri Lanka during an operation in six states between 9am and 2pm.

Police claimed the rebel group was planning an attack on the Sri Lankan High Commission in Malaysia.

Among those nabbed in the dragnet include two DAP assemblypersons P Gunasekaran and G Saminathan.

All of them are now being held for 28 days to facilitate investigations as allowed for under Sosma.

Many quarters have criticised the government and police for using the law, which the ruling coalition has promised to abolish in its GE14 election manifesto last year.

These include several Indian Harapan leaders who deemed the arrest “beyond comprehension”.

Former Bar Council chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan, meanwhile, questioned the necessity for the use of Sosma instead of calling in the two elected representatives from Malacca and Negeri Sembilan for questioning.

DAP Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang had earlier today also called on the police to explain their actions to the select committee.

The Select Committee on Defence and Home Affairs is one of several bipartisan parliamentary select committees formed last December to scrutinise the federal government.

Besides Mansor and Lim, the other members of the committee are Tanjong Malim MP Chang Lih Kang (PKR), Labis MP Pang Hok Liong (DAP), Papar MP Ahmad Hassan (Warisan), Kudat MP Abd Rahim Bakri (independent) and Kota Bharu MP Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS)