KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 (Bernama) -- Dismissing the notion that the Internal Security Act (ISA) is cruel, the inspector-general of police says it is still needed to safeguard national security.Tan Sri Musa Hassan also rejected charges by some quarters that detainees held under the ISA were given no opportunity to defend themselves in court.
"ISA detainees can still obtain their defence by providing evidence in court.
"There is an advisory panel which re-evaluates cases of ISA detainees.
If the panel says the detainees do not threaten the country's security, we will free them," said Musa, adding that members of the panel were former judges.
He was speaking to reporters after officiating the first meeting of the Asean Regional Crime Prevention Foundation (ARCPF) here Wednesday. Answering a question from an Indonesian journalist who was covering the ARCPF event.
Musa said among the ISA detainess were 13 Indonesians who enjoyed permanent resident status here.He said they were being detained in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. ---Bernama
(What an idiot! We don't need this Draconian Act. In fact, I think it should be abolished. Do you know how many ISA detainees’ families have suffered because of this ACT? I should know. My dad was a victim of this Draconian Act when the Government decided to put him a way because he was considered a threat to national security - taken and whisked away one night as a guest of the Government for 5 1/2 years? ISA IS detention without trial and this law has been abused and can be abused by whoever is the Home Minister. My father’s detention (1976-1981, his third but first under the Independent Malaysian Government) was on the instruction/order of the then ambitious and arrogant Ghazali Shafie who had collaborated with LKY to suit their agenda using the communist card and my father’s past leftist leanings to make a case against him. His detention was about an ambitious minister threatened by some political leaders in Umno and a journalist close to the late Prime Minister Tun Razak, a weak Prime Minister and a Prime Minister from the island down south who wanted to settle old scores. No, I don’t wish this Act be imposed on anyone. All I could think now is how the other families of ISA detainees are holding up. And I do share their pain! )************************************
13 comments:
No, Kak Ton, I dont know anyone who's been detained under ISA, but your dad detained for 5 years? That was ridiculous. I suggest that we put the IGP under ISA for 5 months and wonder if he still feel the same. Absolute rubbish!!
Kak Ton,
You and your family should sue the Government for the arrest of your dad under ISA for 5 1/2 years.
That was a pretty long time and the suffreings you guys had to endure.
PAS's Abdul Malik Hussin, the former ISA detainee won RM2.5 million from the Govt for wrongful arrest and detention.
And we all know yr dad's arrest was "politically-motivated" by no no else but by that Ghazali Shafiee.
Kak
"ISA detainees can still obtain their defence by providing evidence in court.
This is ridiculous. Whatever happened to "innocent till proven guilty"? Why is it the other way round for the ISA detainees? Why do they have to provide proof of their innocence? If anything, it's the government who needs to come up with the proof that these detainees are indeed a threat to the country.
The Home Minister (Syed Hamid Albar) has also just said that the ISA is going to stay, and no changes will be made, no matter how much the people are against it. He says it's still needed, and that the ISA doesn't strip the detainees of their fundamental rights.
If not having the chance to get a just trial is NOT stripping them of their rights, I don't know what is.
One comment is not going to be enough for me to rant about the unfairness of the ISA. I write more on my blog.
Take care kak. We hear you loud and clear.
Hi Michelle,
"ISA detainees can still obtain their defence by providing evidence in court...
Bollocks!!
When my dad was detained under the ISA he was NEVER brought to court. He didn't have access to a lawyer. (At least when he was detained for the 2nd time under ISA during the British rule, he had Lee Kuan Yew as his lawyer - this irony of all ironies).
Under the ISA, the Govt can detain a person for two weeks and this can be extended for another two weeks, which was what happened to my dad.
After a month we were told that he was being detained for two years under the ISA. The reason: he is a threat to national security.
The IGP speaks of the advisory panel which evaluates every case of ISA detainees. He forgets to mention that whatever recommendation of the panel, the ultimate power to release the detainee lies with the Home Minister.
Locked up and tar-brushed based on suspicion is not cruel but INHUMAN. The detainee is not the only victim but his wife and children as well.
Not only the livelihood fallout but time robbed from the family. Children growing up and in their formative years are deprived of their dad. The silent pain no one can understand. Worst were the tauntings from peers and the low self-esteem that many children suffered.
Of all people in the world, why must it happen to them? In their innocence, they could only blame themselves.
ISA had been abused since it became law. We will never know the real percentage of detainees who had nothing to do with politics but were fixed cos they crossed the wrong path.
Those days during the Emergency, any one could report to the police of their "suspicion".
Dear Musa Hassan,
ISA is not cruel? where do you learn that words? Are you in a `warasable' (from the word waras)mind?
Please la brother Musa, think of your own family being detained, amd think of your own children being `papaless or mamaless' because of that act.
Have you ever once in your life ever imagine that if you are in their situation. National security, yes, but do you sincerely and honestly believe that all the detainees are
detained because of security reasons.
You are a Muslim, and from a family of good one too, please read the Quran again, again and again. Then you can give your comment again.
Do you ever for a minute, think about the sufferings they endured in detention. Or could you for a minute, ever think that their detention could be for some reasons NOT because of national security. Ya Allah, sedarkan lah Hamba mu ini.
Ramli Mohd Yunus
Alor Star, Kedah.
Dear Anom 11.36pm,
No..No..do not send the IGP for 5 months, just a mere 5 days will do.
Then lets see what he think about the Law of the Jungle.
Ramli Mohd Yunus
Alor Star.
Kak,
the ultimate power to release the detainee lies with the Home Minister.
The panel that reviews the detention under ISA was news to me, and so is this. So it basically means that whatever happens (or doesn't happen) to the ISA detainees is directly under the Home Minister's orders?
If I remember correctly, Syed Hamid Albar mentioned once that the ISA will stay as long as he's the Home Minister. Sort of saying like "over my dead body" sort of thing.
So is it absolutely hopeless for us now to see justice for the ISA detainees?
It makes me sad to know what happened to your father. Maybe you should tell THAT story to IGP, but of course whether they care or not is a different story...
The fact that ISA is supposed to be a "preventative measure for the sake of national security" does not give them the right to mistreat the detainees like that. In that case, ISA is INDEED cruel. What should be done is,
maybe if abolishing is such a
DIFFICULT thing to do for them, is to ammend the law to make sure it is "less" cruel (whatever that means). In this case, to give the detainees a right to access lawyers
and family members.
That's also more realistic for both parties right?
And there MUST be assurance that ISA is not used for political reasons. (hmm...)
Wo, the IGP touched a nerve here didn't he?
Serves him right. Give him kau kau satu lagi.
the IGP is actually saying that all his men are not so intellingent and not so hardworking , with the internal security act , the work of his men will be made very easy, they need not find any evidence or proof to charge in court, that's easy work just throw them in jail even forever.his men are spared the tedious work of gathering evidence.As a policeman his work is fast and easy, he is short of personnel as they always needed for th job of spraying water cannons
kayjay
Well said.
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