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By Mihar Dias January 2026
There are moments when a nation should collectively pause and ask: Have we lost our moral compass?
Detaining a 16-year-old girl for nine days under SOSMA — a law designed for terrorism and national security threats — is one such moment.
Not a militant.
Not a hardened criminal.
A school-going child.
Yet in Kedah, she was thrown into a system meant for the most dangerous elements of society, allegedly for being in a vehicle suspected of smuggling migrants. https://newswav.com/A2601_dGe16b?s=A_niCiqgJ&language=en
No charges. No immediate court process. Just confinement, fear, vomiting, skin allergies, panic attacks — and the psychological scars that will likely linger long after politicians issue their “we will look into it” statements.
DAP veteran Lim Guan Eng is right to call this what it is: unacceptable.https://newswav.com/A2601_dGe16b?s=A_niCiqgJ&language=en
And not just unacceptable — deeply shameful.
SOSMA was sold to Malaysians as a necessary evil to combat serious security threats. But as with many “temporary” emergency-style laws, it has quietly grown into a blunt instrument of convenience.https://newswav.com/A2601_dGe16b?s=A_niCiqgJ&language=en When authorities find normal procedures too slow or too troublesome, SOSMA becomes the shortcut.
Due process? Optional.
Bail? Mostly forbidden.
Human impact? Collateral damage.
What makes this case even more disturbing is that the law itself already provides exceptions.
Section 13 clearly allows leniency for minors, women, and those who are sick or infirm. This girl ticks all three boxes. https://newswav.com/A2601_dGe16b?s=A_niCiqgJ&language=en
Yet somehow, common sense was handcuffed along with her.
Instead of protection under the Child Act, she was placed in a lockup with adult detainees — a setting no child should ever experience. The image alone should haunt every lawmaker in Parliament.
This is not about politics.
This is about power.
When the state is given extraordinary powers without strong safeguards, abuse is not an accident — it is an inevitability.
SOSMA’s defenders often argue that “good officers will use it responsibly.” But history — in Malaysia and elsewhere — teaches us something brutally clear: laws must be built to restrain abuse, not rely on goodwill.
Because goodwill changes with uniforms, governments, and moods.
Today it is a 16-year-old girl.
Tomorrow it could be someone else’s son or daughter.
The trauma inflicted here cannot be undone with apologies or internal investigations. The vomiting, the panic attacks, the sleepless nights — these are the real costs of a law that prioritises efficiency over humanity.
Lim Guan Eng’s call to abolish or radically amend SOSMA is not radical.https://newswav.com/A2601_dGe16b?s=A_niCiqgJ&language=en
What is radical is thinking that locking up minors without due process is acceptable in a country that claims to respect human rights and constitutional safeguards.
Rights groups like Suaram and voices such as Jacob George are right — if investigations are needed, there are humane systems in place: halfway homes, child protection mechanisms, judicial oversight.https://newswav.com/A2601_dGe16b?s=A_niCiqgJ&language=en
But those require effort.
SOSMA requires only a signature.
And that is precisely the problem.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution says he will “look into it.” Malaysians have heard that phrase too many times. We don’t need another press statement. We need legislative action.
Parliament must amend SOSMA immediately — or have the courage to repeal it altogether.
A law that can swallow a child into a security detention framework is a law that has already crossed a dangerous line.
Justice is not about how tough a government can appear.
It is about how fairly it treats the weakest among us.
If Malaysia cannot protect a 16-year-old girl from the excesses of its own laws, then no citizen should feel safe under them.
This case is not an anomaly.
It is a warning.
And the question now is simple:
Will Parliament act — or will we wait until the next child becomes another “unfortunate but necessary” casualty of a broken system?
Because a nation is not judged by how it treats its strongest.
It is judged by how it treats its children.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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