KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 — Malaysia does not need a new law like the National Security Council (NSC) Bill 2015 because the Police Act 1967 already allows areas to be designated as emergency zones, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal said today.
The Semporna MP also pointed out that in Semporna and Sandakan, both areas in Sabah’s east coast that have seen several kidnappings by militants from neighbouring southern Philippines, certain areas could be declared as prohibited areas and a curfew could be imposed.
“If you want to protect national security, there are many ways of doing it,” Shafie told Malay Mail Online in a joint interview with other news organisations.
“In the [Police] Act, it’s already there,” he added.
The Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom), a government security agency based in the Sabah east coast, was set up in 2013 after the Lahad Datu intrusion by Sulu gunmen.
Shafie said today that the NSC Bill could spark perception that the government was trying to revive the now-defunct Internal Security Act (ISA) that allowed for detention without trial, even if Putrajaya insisted that the proposed law would only be used against terrorists. Read more