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| Photo: malaysia-today.net |
It is said that Mr Najib is determined to gain sweeping dictatorial powers as part of a desperate move to hold on to power while he is wrapped in the country's largest corruption scandal, the 1MDB.
This bill of a new National Security Council Act will allow the government to declare areas including the whole of the country, as a security area, in which he and the authorities could deploy forces to search any individual, vehicle or premise without a warrant, and conduct arrests.
It also allows investigators to dispense with formal inquiries into killings by the police or armed forces.
This new law effectively gives Mr Najib authority to impose powers at any time that would normally only be exercised in a general emergency.
Najib’s ruling coalition promoted the law as a means to counter threats to security, in predominantly Muslim Malaysia, which has long dealt with a fringe element of radical Islamists.
Mr Najib has defended the new powers, saying other countries had followed Malaysia's lead in combating terrorism.
"We were criticised by some quarters for passing some of these laws, but my government will never apologise for placing the safety and security of the Malaysian people first," he said.
Malaysian police claimed on July 4 that Islamic State was responsible for a grenade attack on a nightclub near Kuala Lumpur.
But critics say the law’s expansive powers threaten human rights and democracy in the emerging nation and could next be used to silence critics of the One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund scandal.
Read more on The Online Citizen
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