Ibrahim Ali proposes public caning for corruption offenders at Dataran Merdeka

KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia president Datuk Dr Ibrahim Ali has proposed that people convicted of corruption be caned in public at Dataran Merdeka, as part of his party's call for a national economic sabotage act.

Speaking on The Tiger Show Podcast Episode 88, hosted by Amin Iskandar, he said existing penalties are not severe enough to curb corruption involving large sums of public money.

His proposals include a mandatory 15-day remand with a possible further 15 days through the courts, mandatory prison terms scaled to the amount of money involved, seizure of passports and freezing of assets at an early stage of an investigation, and public caning at Dataran Merdeka.

A political proposal, not law

The proposals have no legal standing. No such bill has been tabled in Parliament, and the government has announced no plan to draft one.

Caning in Malaysia is carried out under specific statutory provisions and is administered inside prison institutions, not in public. Corruption offences under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 currently carry imprisonment and fines, not caning.

Remand is granted by court order under the Criminal Procedure Code, with the period set by a magistrate according to the offence under investigation. Fixing a mandatory remand period for a category of offence would require legislative amendment.

A long-standing PUTRA call

PUTRA first floated the idea of a national economic sabotage act in January 2022. Utusan Malaysia reported at the time that Ibrahim said the proposed act would share concepts with the Internal Security Act, including detention without warrant for corruption suspects before trial.

He argued then that corruption was not only damaging to the economy but could also threaten national security.

The questions it raises

The proposals for public caning and mandatory detention raise questions about fundamental rights and due process.

Article 5 of the Federal Constitution guarantees the right to personal liberty. Pre-trial detention without court sanction was among the central issues in the debate that led to the repeal of the Internal Security Act in 2012.

Human rights groups in Malaysia have previously objected to caning on the grounds that it inflicts physical pain, while carrying out punishment in public has never been a practice in the country's criminal justice system.

Ibrahim's proposals represent PUTRA's position and not government policy.