SINGAPORE - A Bill to extend the home affairs minister’s power to detain someone without trial over alleged links to syndicates and secret societies was introduced in Parliament on March 7.

The Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) (Amendment) Bill will seek to extend the operation of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act (CLTPA) for another five years for the 15th time, from Oct 21, 2024.

The Bill was last extended by Parliament from Oct 21, 2019, and will expire on Oct 20, 2024.

CLTPA was enacted in 1955.

Widely known as Section 55, it allows the home affairs minister to detain or place someone associated with crime under police supervision, for security reasons.

It has been used in cases when prosecution was not viable, as witnesses refused to provide evidence for fear of reprisal.

Those issued a detention order (DO) can be detained for up to 12 months, while those issued with a police supervision order (PSO) are subjected to police supervision for up to three years.

The president can extend the orders if necessary.

Those issued the PSO will have to observe strict curfew and travel restrictions, among other requirements. Breaking the conditions can result in a jail sentence.

Both orders were first introduced in 1958 to deal with Singapore’s gang problem.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said CLTPA requires periodic renewal due to the powers given to the minister.

Safeguards have been put in place, including the requirement of the public prosecutor’s consent, before any DO or PSO can be introduced.

The DO and PSO must also be reviewed by an independent committee, while detainees are informed of the grounds of their detention. Detainees can also be legally represented before the committee.

Every case is reviewed by a separate advisory committee at least once annually, after which the committee makes a recommendation to the president on the detainee’s suitability for release.

When the Bill was put to a vote in 2018 for extension, 10 out of the 89 MPs present voted against it, while two abstained.

A spokesperson for MHA told The Straits Times that CLTPA was used 123 times between Oct 21, 2019, and Dec 31, 2023, with 86 DOs and 37 PSOs issued during the five-year period.

The extension of the Act nearly five years ago included an amendment to clearly state the type of offences that fall under the Act.

They include secret society activities, unlicensed moneylending, drug trafficking, kidnapping and organised crime.

MHA said CLTPA remains an essential legal instrument for the police to act effectively against secret societies and criminal syndicates.

Since its renewal in 2019, it has been used on people heavily involved in secret society activities.

MHA said these include headmen and senior members of secret societies who recruit youths into gangs and who carried out violent attacks against other gangs and the public.

MHA said the Act has also been used to detain leaders and financiers of organised crime syndicates. These included the boss of an overseas unlicensed moneylending syndicate who was linked to more than 1,800 cases of harassment.

In 2022, a gang riot involving more than 10 members of rival secret societies broke out in Circular Road. Members of one secret society group assaulted rival gang members in public. One person was stabbed.

Four of the gang members were dealt with under the Act.

In 2021, around 10 people from the same gang armed with machetes, knuckle dusters and a karambit, gathered at a rival gang member’s home.

They wanted to attack him, as they believed he had assaulted their “headman” earlier. As he was not home, the gangsters assaulted his parents and siblings instead.

His parents were hospitalised, and seven of the gang members were dealt with under the Act.

Additionally, a Singaporean lawyer was held under the CLTPA after he allegedly used his former clients as runners to smuggle ketamine from Malaysia to Taiwan and China, through Hong Kong, between early 2004 and April 2005.

The Act was also used against an alleged football match-fixing kingpin, who was detained without trial from October 2013 to December 2019.