‘Shooting drug pushers flouts international law’

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has no plans to allow law enforcers to shoot drug traffickers, as is taking place in the Philippines, in the effort to tackle the drug problem in the country.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said any amendment to the law to allow that action to be taken in the country was against international norms and policies.

“We don’t have to follow them (the Philippines) because it will bring a lot of implications and pressure from outside such as the United Nations,” he said when winding up the 2018 Supply Bill debate at the committee level for the ministry in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

He said the country might face implications such as economic sanctions from international organisations because the matter was seen as flouting human rights.

Earlier, during the debate session, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin ( BN-Kinabatangan) proposed that the government follow the government of the Philippines which has resorted to the very stringent measure of shooting dead drug pushers who refused to cease their activities and surrender.

Bung Moktar also suggested that drug pushers be held without trial.

Last year, Bung Moktar also made the same suggestion in Parliament, namely urging the government to act firmly by shooting drug addicts and traffickers to end the drug menace, described as the nation’s number one enemy.

Meanwhile, Nur Jazlan said drug trafficking by syndicates was a lucrative industry with a very strong lure, especially to those with financial constraints.

“This is among the elements that pose a difficulty for us to combat drugs, other than difficulty in detecting the new drugs because they do not have a strong smell like cannabis.

“As such, our priority is the implementation of drugprevention programmes and this will be stepped up by the National Anti-Drug Agency to combat the menace,” he said.

The 2018 Supply Bill for the Home Ministry was passed with majority votes from the lawmakers.