ISA memo handed over at PM's office

From right Lim Lip Eng,William Leong,Loh Gwo-Burne,Siti Mariah and Fong Poh Kuan holding the petition for a debate on repeal of ISA. - Photogrpah by Choo Choy May

By Debra Chong

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 24 - A group of opposition lawmakers today submitted a petition to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi at his office here as part of an effort to have a Parliamentary debate of the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA).

MP for Selayang William Leong told The Malaysian Insider: "We want a motion to debate the ISA. We are not asking even for a review or for it to be repealed, but to allow the matter to be debated in Parliament."

He explained that this was because Parliament was the "right place" to bring up the law that allows for detentions without trials.

Leong noted that the motion to debate the ISA had first been mooted since the first sitting of Parliament after the March general elections by Teresa Kok, the MP for Seputeh who herself had been detained under the Act for a week last month.

However, the motion has been stagnating as the Speaker for the Dewan Rakyat has not allowed its debate.

Leong called on Abdullah "as a defender of democracy and human rights" to fulfil his promise to "liberalise the country's democracy" before his tenure as prime minister ends in March next year.

The petition bears the signatures of 85 out of the 222 MPs, with 81 from the triparte Pakatan Rakyat, the three independent MPs and one from Barisan Nasional.

Leong explained that they had only approached "20-something " MPs from the government coalition so far and would be mounting another session to persuade them soon.

None of the MPs were willing to disclose the identity of the sole BN MP who signed the petition. When asked, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said: We cannot disclose. I can only tell you it is not from MCA."

Apart from Leong and Lim, the other MPs who were present included Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah), Dr Siti Mariah Mahmood (Pas-Kota Raja) and Loh Gwo-Burne (PKR-Kelana Jaya).

They handed over the petition to Datuk Ahmad Yaakob, the PM's chief senior private secretary at the Prime Minister's Office here today without much fuss.