Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0233/02330.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 29KB | 458 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02330}
$Pretitle{245}
$Title{Malaysia
Chapter 5E.   Crime and the Criminal Justice System}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald M. Seekins}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{criminal
malaysia
courts
security
cases
offenses
law
court
code
malaysian}
$Date{1984}
$Log{}
Country:     Malaysia
Book:        Malaysia, A Country Study
Author:      Donald M. Seekins
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984

Chapter 5E.   Crime and the Criminal Justice System

     Public safety did not appear to be imperiled by any abnormally high
incidence of crime, and law enforcement officials and the criminal justice
system seemed to be coping adequately with what problems did occur. Although,
as in all nations, statistics on criminal activity in Malaysia were flawed in
various ways, available information suggested that rates of crime in the 1970s
and early 1980s compared favorably with those in other developing countries
and several developed ones as well. Preliminary figures indicated that the
rise in the incidence of crime experienced in the 1970s had leveled off by the
end of the decade and that the incidence of crime had actually fallen in the
1981-82 period. The fall was attributable to declines in both violent crimes
and property offenses. Almost one-half of all violent crime in 1982 continued
to take the form of robbery without firearms, and property crimes accounted
for almost 90 percent of all criminal offenses.

     Geographically, the rate of violent crime was highest in the west coast
states of Peninsular Malaysia. Over the 1978-80 period, Perak recorded the
highest rate of crime in the nation. In 1981-82, however, the Federal
Territory of Kuala Lumpur acquired that dubious distinction, reflecting an
increase in robbery, assault, and motor vehicle theft associated with the
growing urbanization of the area. The nation experienced a disproportionate
increase in crimes by juveniles over the 1978-82 period. The government
attributed the rise to a lack of parental control and guidance, presumably
associated with disruptions in the traditional social structures, and with
high levels of unemployment, especially among school dropouts. Curbing
juvenile delinquency and rehabilitating juvenile offenders became a high
priority of law enforcement officials.

     Malaysia's highest law enforcement priority was reserved for combating
narcotics trafficking and drug addiction. In early 1983 the minister of home
affairs stated that the nation's drug problem was of "epidemic proportions"
and posed a threat to the national security. According to most estimates,
during the early 1980s Malaysia had the highest per capita incidence of opium
or heroin addiction of any nation in Southeast Asia and a considerably higher
proportion than the United States. There were 88,000 registered drug addicts
in Malaysia as of mid-1982. Drug trafficking on a major scale was usually
confined to ethnic Chinese. Addicts were found among all ethnic groups,
however, most being males between the ages of 16 and 30. Evidence also pointed
to a growing use of marijuana in the early 1980s.

     Penang Island, part of Penang State on the west coast of Peninsular
Malaysia, was the principal point for domestic distribution of narcotics. The
island was also a major international transhipment center for opium and heroin
from the area where Burma, Laos, and Thailand converge-commonly known as the
Golden Triangle. Drugs were smuggled in by organized syndicates; most entered
the nation by sea from Thailand or Burma, but some were brought into the
country overland from Thailand and then taken from Malaysian ports to Penang
Island. Law enforcement officials found it impossible to police the rugged
coastline of the island and the neighboring mainland or the undeveloped border
area between Malaysia and Thailand. Some observers have also claimed that
laboratories for refining opium into heroin have at times operated in the
Malaysia-Thailand border area. It was known that chemicals necessary to the
refining process have been illegally imported into Malaysia and then
disappeared, presumably used in-country or shipped to refineries in
neighboring states.

     The nation has enacted very tough antinarcotics laws and control
procedures, but drug abuse continued to rise during the early 1980s. Since
1975 all traffickers have been liable for either life imprisonment or the
death sentence; the death sentence has been mandatory for trafficking in
more than a minimal amount of controlled substances. Many traffickers have
been executed. Malaysians used the local term dadah to refer to any illicit
drug but most often heroin; campaigns against dadah were run regularly in
schools and the media. There was even a committee against dadah in the NSC.

     In early 1983 the government moved to toughen its stand further,
shifting emphasis from public health to law enforcement and internal
security by transferring responsibility for combating the problem from
the Ministry of Welfare Services to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Also in
1983 the government passed several new amendments to existing antinarcotics
legislation. These authorized police or customs officials to open
correspondence and tap telephones of suspected drug offenders; permitted
medical officers to examine, forcibly if necessary, any suspects; and
lowered the amount of controlled substance necessary to qualify suspects
as traffickers. Other new legislation permitted authorities to take
suspected addicts into custody for up to one day for medical tests; that
period could be extended to two weeks upon securing an order from a
magistrate.

     The nation had two other special law enforcement problems. Chinese
criminal societies, although far less powerful than in the past, continued
to operate in Malaysia. Moreover, in the early 1980s Malaysian authorities
had to contend with large-scale smuggling of tin both from Thailand to
smelters in Malaysia and from Malaysia to smelters outside the country.
Malaysia was the world's largest producer of tin; through smuggling it
was possible to circumvent quotas on the tin exports, which were designed
to maintain international prices on the commodity.

Security Offenses

     Offenses covered under the Internal Security Act (ISA) as amended formed
a distinctive category of crime, for which the government employed law
enforcement and trial procedures substantially different from those used
to deal with ordinary crime. The ISA was passed at the end of the 1948-60
Emergency to replace the Emergency Regulations, which were first promulgated
by the British and then became part of the national law at independence.
Enactment of the ISA in 1960 ensured that the provisions of the Emergency
Regulations would continue to have the force of law after the state of
emergency was lifted.

     The ISA provides for "preventive detention, the prevention of subversion,
the suppression of organized violence against persons and property ... and
for matters incidental thereto." Under it, the minister of home affairs is
authorized to detain for renewable two-year periods-or place restrictions on
the freedom and movement of-any person "acting in any many prejudicial to the
security of Malaysia ... or to the maintenance of essential services therein
or to the economic life thereof." This ISA also authorizes the minister of
home affairs to prohibit the wearing of uniforms of military or quasi-military
organizations, to prosecute members of proscribed quasi-military
organizations, and to prohibit the printing, sale, and distribution of any
documents or publications that he considers prejudicial to the national
interest, public order, or national security. Under the ISA police can
arrest and detain suspects for up to 60 days without charging them with a
crime if they have reason to believe the suspect had acted or was about to
act in a manner that would require detention under the ISA. The ISA was
amended in 1975 to make the death sentence mandatory for possessing firearms,
am