The Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, in its current form (4 June 2015), consists of 8 Parts containing 32 sections and 2 schedules (including 1 amendment).

Three people, including former ISA detainees Yazid Sufaat, Halimah Hussein and Mohd Hilmi Hasim, were the first ever detained under SOSMA in 2013.

[2] Following the 2013 Lahad Datu standoff, 104 Filipinos with suspected links to Jamalul Kiram III, one of the claimants to the throne of the Sultanate of Sulu, were detained under SOSMA.

Several civil rights groups also said the use of SOSMA for an organiser of a peaceful rally was abuse of power and that the Malaysian government was trying to suppress dissent by using draconian laws.

[7] On 23 March 2022, Minister of Home Affairs Hamzah Zainudin tabled the motion in the Dewan Rakyat to carry on with the powers to detain suspects for up to 28 days without trial and to extend the enforcement of subsection 4(5) of SOSMA for another five years beginning from 31 July 2022.

[10][11] The Democratic Action Party secretary-general Anthony Loke disagreed, saying that the opposition decision not to support the extension of SOSMA was not a violation of the memorandum of understanding between the government and Pakatan Harapan.

Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, attributed the defeat to the negligence of duties of the government parliamentary whips.

[19] Meanwhile, Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil expressed dismay at the manually done mistakes and called upon Azhar to improve the voting process system.