DAP secretary-general, Loke Siew Fook speaks during DAP’s 17th Party Congress in IDCC on March 20, 2022. — Picture by Miera Zulyana
KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — The political truce signed between the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Opposition coalition and the Ismail Sabri administration last year is still intact, according to DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke.
Loke who is also Seremban MP was responding to several Barisan Nasional (BN) politicians who yesterday declared the peace deal over after the Opposition bloc defeated the government’s bid to extend a controversial clause in the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) 2012 for detention without trial.
He said that several BN MPs, including Umno’s Ketereh MP Tan Sri Annuar Musa, only partially read Article 3.3b of the MoU.
“Article 3.3b indicated that only when a Bill has been discussed with us beforehand, in this context the motion yesterday was not discussed with us prior to it being brought to Parliament.
“The Act is still in effect, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) 2012 was not repealed, it’s still here.
“We only objected to the motion to extend Sub-section 4(5) of the Sosma Act,” Loke said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Several BN MPs demanded Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob review the government’s stand on the MoU after the Opposition bloc objected to the motion brought by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin to extend Sub-section 4(5), which is 28-days detention period, for another five years starting July 17, 2022.
The Opposition MPs won during a bloc vote by a thin margin with 86 saying no to extend against 84 from the government.
MORE TO COME
* A previous version of this story contained an error which has since been corrected.