FAC News - Monday, June 17, 2002 8:28 AM

ISA Not Used As A Political Tool: Abdullah

The Internal Security Act (ISA) will not be repealed and the government will not use it to pressure or arrest opposition party members for their political activities, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.

Abdullah said the ISA was a preventive law that was used against individuals or groups deemed a threat to national security regardless of their political beliefs.

"The ISA is not an Act that is used to arrest members of opposition parties for their political activities, and therefore we have no plans to repeal it," he told reporters.

Abdullah, who is Home Minister, said this when asked to comment on the European Parliament's call for the ISA to be abolished.

Last Friday, AFP reported that the European Parliament had called on Malaysia to repeal its ISA, claiming that it was being used to crush political dissent.

It cited reports from the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and other groups that more than 40 people are being held without charge or trial under the ISA and that at least eight of them are being detained "on grounds of the peaceful expression of their political or religious beliefs".

"We appreciate the presence of opposition parties in our country's democratic practice and that is why until today we still have opposition.”

"And this is proven as opposition parties still managed to win seats and today PAS is the ruling party in Terengganu and Kelantan," Abdullah said.

He said if the government had taken actions just because it did not like opposition parties, "definitely opposition parties would not have any role in our country".

"If something which can jeopardise our security happens and we identify people with a certain agenda (behind it), then action will be taken against them. But the important thing is that the ISA is not used as a tool to pressure opposition parties," he said.

Abdullah said some UMNO members had also been arrested under the ISA. "In fact, there was also a deputy minister in the government who was held under the ISA previously," he said.

He said other countries like the United States shared Malaysia's view that the ISA was a preventive law that should be used in certain situations without having to wait until the outbreak of something bad with security implications.

"However, we have the ISA not because other countries have it...we adopted the ISA before other countries did so," he said.

-- BERNAMA