http://www.malaysiakini.com/Letter/2001/04/2001041410.php3

Saturday April 14

Licence to abuse
Irene Xavier

4:51pm, Sat: The recent detentions under the Internal Security Act and
remarks by Malaysian ministers prompt me to say something about my own
experience as a detainee under the ISA.

I do not want anyone to think that the Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi's statement that no one will be abused in detention is a promise of
good treatment (ISA 7 will not be 'brutalised', says Pak Lah, April 12). I
say this because the ISA exists because it is a legal licence to abuse a
detainee.

In fact, our Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad hit the nail on the head
when he said that the ISA is necessary because it can be used when there is
no evidence of crime (ISA more effective, says PM, April 12).

My own experience was that the police used the 60 days to cow, humiliate,
initimidate and literally beat me into agreeing to the story that they
concocted from their sick minds about espionage and spy masters. I had to
read a spy novel (for the first time in my life) in Kamunting, where I was
held, to understand the spy terminology that they used. I cannot see how the
DPM can prevent abuse unless he sits in the interrogation rooms all the
time.

The ISA is used so that men can beat women. In every interrogation session
that I was put through there was a woman Special Branch officer present
except for the session when I was beaten. Rules are conveniently bent when
the police break the law. How is the DPM going to prevent this?

The ISA is used so that police personel can verbally abuse detainees. They
can insult my religion, my religious leaders, my family and my friends.

The ISA is used so that the police personnel can barter with female
detainees who ask for another panty because the only one she has has been
stained with menstrual blood. Getting a pair of slippers or anything for
that matter is a major negotiation.

So I am convinced that the DPM does not know what he is talking about. Until
the people of this nation say that we will not allow this type of abuse, no
one, not even the DPM, can guarantee there will be no abuse of detainees
under the ISA.
 

Last modified: Saturday April 14, 4:52 pm
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ISA 7 will not be 'brutalised', says Pak Lah
http://www.malaysiakini.com/News/2001/04/2001041205.php3

ISA more effective, says PM
http://www.malaysiakini.com/News/2001/04/2001041202.php3
__________

http://www.asianwomenonline.com/editorial.cfm?id=19

Editorial

ISA and the assault on human dignity
Celine Tan for AWO

13 April 2001

The Malaysian government has once again resorted to a piece of draconian
legislation which has no place in any democratic society, even in those with
truncated rights and freedoms. The use of the Internal Security Act (ISA) -
a relic from Malaysia's colonial past providing for detention without
trial - against six members of the opposition and one activist
filmmaker/journalist is abhorrent and jars against the image of a modern,
economically vibrant society the government is keen on projecting. The
arrests contrasts sharply with the postcard-perfect picture of the Petronas
Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur (tallest building in the world) that
characterises visual conceptions of Malaysia.

A year after the establishment of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission
(Suhakam), the Malaysian government chose to act in a manner violating the
very fundamentals of human rights and human dignity, a move which is an
affront to the very existence of Suhakam itself!

Among those detained under the ISA on April 9 and 10 were organisers of an
event to hand over a memorandum on the state of human rights in Malaysia to
the Commission on Saturday, April 14. April 14 marks the second anniversary
of the High Court's guilty verdict against jailed former deputy prime
minister Anwar Ibrahim on corruption charges in a trial critics - including
the Malaysian opposition and non-governmental organisations, international
human rights and Bar associations - have charged as procedurally and
substantively unfair.

Of the seven arrested, six are members of the National Justice Party
(Keadilan) formed after the sacking from government and arrest of Anwar in
1998 and headed by his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail: Tian Chua, the party's
vice-president; youth leaders Ezam Mohamad Nor, N Gobalakrishnan and Abdul
Ghani Harun; Saari Sungrib, organiser of the 'Black 14' rally; and Raja
Petra Kamaruddin, webmaster of the Free Anwar Campaign website,
freeanwar.com. The seventh is activist filmmaker and part-time journalist
Hishammuddin Rais whose involvement in student protests (with Anwar) in the
early 1970s led to his exile for more than 20 years abroad.

The police have justified the arrests as necessary for the protection of
national security. The Malaysian Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai had
said that intelligence reports indicated that those detained were planning
to overthrow the government by force, including taking measures to secure
the procurement of bombs and rocket launchers and engaging martial arts
experts as well as seeking the involvement of a number of ex-military
personnel. These allegations are reminiscent of the charges levelled at
members of the Al' Ma'unah group last year who were detained after a group
stole a cache of arms from a military base and who now face a treason charge
in court.

Under Section 73(1) of the ISA, the police is empowered to detain persons
without a warrant of arrest if the persons are deemed a security risk and
their detention can be justified under Section 8 of the Act. Section 8
allows the Home Minister - a post currently held by Malaysian Deputy Prime
Minister Abdullah Badawi - to order the incarceration of persons whose
activities may be prejudicial against the security of the nation for a
period not exceeding two years.

The ISA is an oppressive legislation that violates every fundamental
principle of human rights. It provides for arbitrary arrest and denies
persons recourse to a court of law, provisions which fly in the face of
international covenants such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR), of which Malaysia is a signatory. Article 9 of the UNDHR states that
no-one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile while
Article 10 guarantees all persons the right to an independent and impartial
hearing of charges levelled against them and Article 11 provides for the
presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law.

Civil society groups in Malaysia, from human rights organisations such as
Suaram and Hakam to the Malaysian Bar Council, have long called for the
repeal of the ISA. They have been vociferous in their criticism of this
archaic law originally promulgated by the British to contain what the
colonial administrators saw as the 'communist threat' during the 1950s but
entrenched by the Malaysian Parliament in 1960. Even the state-sponsored
Human Rights Commission has decried the recent arrests and called for the
release of the detainees.

The ISA not only deprives people of their liberty but also the families of
those detained of their loved ones, in many cases, the male breadwinner.
Families of those currently detained under the ISA have cried that their
loved ones have "disappeared into thin air".

Because of the subjective nature of the ISA, there can be no challenge to
the executive's interpretation of what constitutes a threat to the security
of the nation. According to Suaram, the ISA has been used in many instances
to curtail trade union activities, curtail free speech and limit dissent to
government actions. It has also been used against religious groups
professing a different faith from that of the orthodoxy. In 1989, more than
a hundred people - including journalists, activists, and opposition
politicians - were incarcerated under the ISA in what is known as the
Operasi Lalang (Lalang Operation) following a political crisis within Umno,
the dominant party in Malaysia's ruling National Front government, leading
to the sacking of the Lord President and three Supreme Court judges by the
executive.

As a result, the threat of the ISA continues to hang like a Sword of
Damocles over the Malaysian population, creating a society premised on fear
of the unknown. Fear which paralyses legitimate critique of government and
fear which prohibits dissent in any form.

Democracy cannot flourish in a society crippled by fear. The ISA must be
repealed. Its disregard for the procedural requirements of justice and
fairness has no place in a country with 43 years of independent rule behind
it. The ISA is a colonial legacy which must be left where it belongs - in an
era where human dignity, sovereignty of state and agency of person was
denied - It has no place in a 21st century Malaysia.

__________

Lawan tetap lawan, psikologi reformis
Fathi Aris Omar

http://www.malaysiakini.com/News/2001/04/2001041401.php3