KUALA LUMPUR (July 26, 2010): It will be 50 years since the Internal Security Act (ISA) was introduced on Aug 1, and to mark the anniversary, two organisations – the Movement to Abolish the ISA (GMI) and the Malaysian Bar Council – are once again calling for the Act to be scrapped.
GMI also has plans to hold candlelight vigils around the country on that date as a way of raising awareness about the law and getting public support to get it repealed instead of amending it as proposed by the Home Ministry, said the movement's chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh at a press conference today.
GMI would be seeking to work with the Selangor government and will approach Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim to seek permission to put up billboards and banners on the ISA, he said.
The movement also plans to launch a leaflet campaign on Aug 1, with over 100,000 leaflets set to be distributed nationwide, with 30,000 to be distributed in the Klang Valley to educate Malaysians on the "controversial and cruel" Act.
GMI also has plans to hold candlelight vigils around the country on that date as a way of raising awareness about the law and getting public support to get it repealed instead of amending it as proposed by the Home Ministry, said the movement's chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh at a press conference today.
GMI would be seeking to work with the Selangor government and will approach Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim to seek permission to put up billboards and banners on the ISA, he said.
The movement also plans to launch a leaflet campaign on Aug 1, with over 100,000 leaflets set to be distributed nationwide, with 30,000 to be distributed in the Klang Valley to educate Malaysians on the "controversial and cruel" Act.
"In the past, we had been told that the ISA was to be used on communists, but it has been used on those who criticise government policy. The grounds of arrest have been tremendously expanded," said Syed Ibrahim. He said there are enough existing laws to cover crimes without the ISA.
GMI is also calling for all preventive detention Acts, including the Emergency Ordinance 1969, Restricted Residence Act 1933 and Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures Act) 1985, to be repealed immediately.
Meanwhile, at another press conference, Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan said they had sent a memorandum to the Home Ministry on July 19, also to call for the ISA and other preventive detention Acts to be abolished.
"The memorandum draws attention to the archaic nature of these laws. It highlights how laws that allow for detention without trial offend the fundamental principles of human rights provided for within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and subsequent international conventions," said Ragunath.
The Bar Council also raised similar points to GMI in their memorandum concerning existing laws which provided law enforcement agencies with "sufficient powers" to curb crimes without having to resort to the ISA.
Bar Council human rights committee chairperson Andrew Khoo, who was also at the press conference, said Malaysia was recently visited by the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention from June 7-18 who recommended that our preventive laws be repealed or amended to conform with Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"Access to the courts has been removed except for very minor procedural matters, it (the ISA) has been made harder to challenge," he added. -- theSun
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