|  KUALA LUMPUR, Sunday, 19 October 2008 – “The Bar Council will keep up the deafening sound of objections against the ISA,” said Lim Chee Wee, the Secretary of the Bar Council, in his speech during the gathering to endorse the abolition of the Internal Security Act, 1960 held at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) today.
Also speaking at the gathering were Dato’ Bong Hon Liong, President of KLSCAH, Dr. Yap Sin Tian, Chairman of Dong Zong, Tan Sri Lim Gait Tong, President of the Federation of Chinese Assembly Hall (FECAM), Ong Chiow Chuan, President of Jiao Zong, Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, Chaiman of Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI), Norlaila Othman, wife of ISA detainee Mat Sah Mohd Satray, Marina Lee Abdullah, wife of Raja Petra Kamarudin and Haris Ibrahim, lawyer and founder of the blog, The People’s Parliament.
Based on the record provided by GMI Secretariat Enalini Elumalai, this year alone GMI has organised over 30 events calling for abolition of the ISA. Today’s endorsement by various organisations from all over the country is seen as the beacon of hope for this draconian law to be abolished in very near future.
Lim Chee Wee in his speech also noted that endorsements are received from organisations, which comprise not only human rights activists, political parties on both sides of the spectrum and educationists, but even business people. If even business people whom are conservative are concerned about ISA, this goes to show how threatening the public as a whole find ISA, he explained. He also urged the Prime Minister to add repealing ISA as his fourth initiative to his three promised initiatives before he steps down.
Norlaila, also known as Kak Laila, stressed that the best way to recruit support is by word of mouth. Marina suggested GMI to hold this sort of gathering all over the country to increase the momentum.
Haris announced that The People’s Parliament has started “ISA Candlelight Vigil” last week and invited the audience to attend the second vigil tonight. “Let’s do it in every state and keep doing it until ISA is abolished,” he said.
The gathering which ended at about 1pm saw about 300 people from the various organisations in attendance, including the President of Pertubuhan Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM), Tn Hj Zaid Kamaruddin.
Also present were Brendan Siva, HR Dipendra and Richard Wee representing the Kuala Lumpur Bar, Syamsuriatina Ishak representing the Selangor Bar as well as the Bar Council Human Rights Committee and Amer Hamzah Arshad, Andy Yong, Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, Maria Soosai Raj and Seira Sacha Abu Bakar also from the Bar Council Human Rights Committee. |
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