Wednesday, 17-Oct-2001 4:34 PM

ISA not meant to be used against non-Communists

The Kuala Lumpur Federal Court was told today that the Internal Security Act (ISA) was never meant for use against non-Communists.

According to Christopher Leong, one of the counsels acting for five of the ten Reformasi activists arrested under the Internal Security Act, when the ISA was first tabled in Parliament, they were very specific about its purpose.

The Member of Parliament for Ipoh then, Dr Senivasagam, stood up to question the then Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, about the purpose of the ISA. Tun Razak responded that the ISA was needed to combat the Communist Terrorists at the Malaysian-Thai border.

“They were very clear about what the ISA was going to be used for,” said Christopher, “It was to fight the Communists and for only that. This was what the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed in Parliament when the Act was first tabled in Parliament for debate.” 

The Kuala Lumpur Federal Court was hearing the Petition of Appeal filed by five of the ten opposition leaders and Reformasi activists arrested under Malaysia’s infamous and dreaded Internal Security Act (ISA).

On 10 April 2001, three National Justice Party leaders and one political activist – Tian Chua, Hishamuddin Rais, Saari Sungib and Ezam Mohd Noor - were arrested (in that order) and, the following day, Raja Petra Kamarudin, the Director of the Free Anwar Campaign. Over the next two weeks, five more were rounded up – N. Gobalakrishnan, Abdul Ghani Haroon, Lokman Noor Adam, Badaruddin Ismail and Dr Badrulamin Bahron.

On 25 April 2001, families of the first five arrested on 10 and 11 April filed Writs of Habeas Corpus in the Kuala Lumpur High Court seeking to get their arrest declared illegal. The High Court, however, ruled their arrest as valid and that the police had not acted in bad faith (Mala Fide) as claimed by the families in their Writs.

The families of the five, one of whom (Raja Petra) has since been released, then filed Petitions of Appeal on 17 May 2001. In their Petitions, which were later supported by Affidavits signed by all ten ISA detainees, they revealed that their interrogation had nothing to do with the reason of their arrest as announced by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) at a press conference a few days after the arrest.

This is being seen as a landmark case, for its outcome will determine the future of the ISA that currently gives the police wide powers of arrest and indefinite detention without trial, plus detention before any crime is actually committed - even in the absence of evidence.