The Patriot Act is nothing like the ISA

Honest Abe

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad once again claims that the United States and he are kindred souls when it comes to locking up potential terrorists.

According to national news agency Bernama, the PM told the Associated Press during an interview that although he was long criticised by the United States for locking up suspects without trial, America had adopted similar practices since Sept 11.

Mahathir reportedly said that events since Sept 11 have proven critics wrong and allowed him to pre-empt a series of threats by armed militant groups who considered his moderate government to not be Islamic enough.

This is another example of the PM trying to say, as usual, that he was right all the time, and now even the Americans have come to agree with him and his Internal Security Act (ISA).

But there are major differences between the ISA and what the Americans call their "Patriot Act".

Mahathir uses the ISA against his own citizens, his own fellow Malaysians. The Patriot Act of the US can only be used against foreigners. It cannot be used against US citizens.

The one American who has been accused of supporting terrorism, John Walker Lindh, has been indicted and is now being tried in a UScourt under regular US laws. He has full access to attorneys and all the legal rights and protections of a US citizen. His lawyers and family have full access to the press, and their comments are openly reported and not censored.

Malaysian citizens detained under the ISA do not have similar rights. They have never been charged in court, and they are denied access to lawyers and a fair and open trial.

As for the non-US citizens being held under the Patriot Act, the US government is required to file either immigration or criminal charges against them within seven days. In other words, they must be formally charged under regular US laws within seven days. They simply cannot be locked up for two years without any charges filed, as happens under the ISA.

A special problem arises, however, when these people are to be deported on immigration charges. What if the country they came from does now want them back because they are suspected terrorists? The US government believes it cannot simply turn them loose in America, so it will continue to hold them.

The law says that non-citizens ordered removed on visa violations can be indefinitely detained if they are stateless, their country of origin refuses to accept them, or they are granted relief from deportation because they would be tortured if they were returned to their country of origin. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is concerned about this point.

It goes without saying that the Patriot Act is not used to lock up members of the US Democratic Party (currently the `opposition' party in the United States, or newspaper columnists who disagree with George W Bush.

How does Mahathir justify the use of the ISA against Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua or "non-governmental individual" Hishamuddin Rais or Free Anwar Campaign's Raja Petra Kamarudin?