14/12/2010
YAB. Dato Seri Najib Razak
Prime Minister of Malaysia,
Block Utama Bangunan Perdana Putra, Fax : 03-8888 3444
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan,
62502 Putrajaya. E-Mail : najib@pmo.gov.my
Y.B Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein,
Menteri Kementerian Dalam Negeri,
Kementerian Dalam Negeri,
Blok D1 & D2, Kompleks D,
Pusat Pentadbiran,
Kerajaan Persekutuan, Fax:03-26933131
62546 Putrajaya E-Mail: menteri@moha.gov.my
Re: Hindraf lawyers unlawfully detained under ISA three years and one day ago today .
Dear YAB/ Y.B,
Yestersday was another Black Day for the Indian community in Malaysia because 3 years ago today, on the 13th of December 2007 you decided to place and one day in detention without trial, our Hindraf Lawyers, by invoking the draconian law, the Internal Security Act.
On this day we call upon you to immediately abolish this draconian and unjust Internal Security Act and to release all detained without trial under this Act at the Kamunting Detention Prison.
On 13/12/2007 the ISA was used against Hindraf lawyers whose only crime was to speak up loudly and clearly for the marginalized and segregated minority Malaysian Indians who for 53 years have been oppressed by the segregationist and religious supremacist policies of the UMNO regime. The crux of the demands of the marginalized and segregated minority Malaysian Indians is listed in their 18 point demand of the 12th of August 2007. Instead of addressing these issues squarely, the leaders in the UMNO led Government, including yourself, maliciously and falsely labeled the Hindraf Lawyers as Hindu extremists who had secret links to the LTTE and who posed a threat to internal security and invoked the Internal Security Act against them. You did this only so that you can get public opinion on your side to put them away without trial. You did this as a show of your power to act, to punish those that dare defy your regime and to silence all the voices calling for change.
While in detention P.Uthayakumar wrote a moving letter on his 500 days in detention under ISA. In his letter he wrote that even though he is a Lawyer himself and had defended many in the court of law he was himself unable defend against this false and malicious charge against him because he has been shut up by this draconian law which utterly denies him any right to be heard. What irony, he wrote.
Further, the exercise of the Internal Security Act for the charges you have laid upon the Hindraf lawyers is in violation of Article 8 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution on equality. Article 8 provides that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection and that there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the ground only of religion, race, descent and gender or place of birth.
This regime of rule of law requires every man to be given a right to be heard, Audi Altrem Partem.
In your wisdom you have decided otherwise.
By this act of detaining the Hindraf lawyers without trial, you have decided that the articulation of the 18 point demand to correct the excesses of the past on the Indian minority community does not require to be dealt with by the rule of law. Anyone defying the racist and religious supremacist regime that the UMNO led Government has built up over the 53 years is not entitled to equal treatment before the law in spite of the guarantee in the Federal Constitution.
On the personal side, the pain and torture of detention under the ISA is worse than the pain of incarceration of the ordinary prisoner, because the ordinary prisoner knows the exact date when he will be free again. Not the ISA detainee. This is in the design of the method of punishment – mental torture every day of detention. To use this law is in total violation of the norms of a free, fair and humane society.
Equality and Freedom of Expression are pillars of Human Rights. Human Rights is the foundation of a just and free society. To deny equality and the freedom of expression is to continue to bottle in the true potentialities of our society. Only through the processes of maintaining equality and allowing freedom of expression do societies establish a basis for prosperity and progress for all in society. The voices speaking up to realize this must be allowed to be heard.
The Internal Security Act flies in the face of all of this wisdom.
We the Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP),call upon the Home Minister to immediately abolish the draconian ISA and shut down “Malaysia’s Guantanamo Bay” Kamunting ISA Detention Camp and to move on forward with the wishes of the people.
“Rights not Mercy”
N. Ganesan
Adviser
Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP)
YAB. Dato Seri Najib Razak
Prime Minister of Malaysia,
Block Utama Bangunan Perdana Putra, Fax : 03-8888 3444
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan,
62502 Putrajaya. E-Mail : najib@pmo.gov.my
Y.B Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein,
Menteri Kementerian Dalam Negeri,
Kementerian Dalam Negeri,
Blok D1 & D2, Kompleks D,
Pusat Pentadbiran,
Kerajaan Persekutuan, Fax:03-26933131
62546 Putrajaya E-Mail: menteri@moha.gov.my
Re: Hindraf lawyers unlawfully detained under ISA three years and one day ago today .
Dear YAB/ Y.B,
Yestersday was another Black Day for the Indian community in Malaysia because 3 years ago today, on the 13th of December 2007 you decided to place and one day in detention without trial, our Hindraf Lawyers, by invoking the draconian law, the Internal Security Act.
On this day we call upon you to immediately abolish this draconian and unjust Internal Security Act and to release all detained without trial under this Act at the Kamunting Detention Prison.
On 13/12/2007 the ISA was used against Hindraf lawyers whose only crime was to speak up loudly and clearly for the marginalized and segregated minority Malaysian Indians who for 53 years have been oppressed by the segregationist and religious supremacist policies of the UMNO regime. The crux of the demands of the marginalized and segregated minority Malaysian Indians is listed in their 18 point demand of the 12th of August 2007. Instead of addressing these issues squarely, the leaders in the UMNO led Government, including yourself, maliciously and falsely labeled the Hindraf Lawyers as Hindu extremists who had secret links to the LTTE and who posed a threat to internal security and invoked the Internal Security Act against them. You did this only so that you can get public opinion on your side to put them away without trial. You did this as a show of your power to act, to punish those that dare defy your regime and to silence all the voices calling for change.
While in detention P.Uthayakumar wrote a moving letter on his 500 days in detention under ISA. In his letter he wrote that even though he is a Lawyer himself and had defended many in the court of law he was himself unable defend against this false and malicious charge against him because he has been shut up by this draconian law which utterly denies him any right to be heard. What irony, he wrote.
Further, the exercise of the Internal Security Act for the charges you have laid upon the Hindraf lawyers is in violation of Article 8 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution on equality. Article 8 provides that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection and that there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the ground only of religion, race, descent and gender or place of birth.
This regime of rule of law requires every man to be given a right to be heard, Audi Altrem Partem.
In your wisdom you have decided otherwise.
By this act of detaining the Hindraf lawyers without trial, you have decided that the articulation of the 18 point demand to correct the excesses of the past on the Indian minority community does not require to be dealt with by the rule of law. Anyone defying the racist and religious supremacist regime that the UMNO led Government has built up over the 53 years is not entitled to equal treatment before the law in spite of the guarantee in the Federal Constitution.
On the personal side, the pain and torture of detention under the ISA is worse than the pain of incarceration of the ordinary prisoner, because the ordinary prisoner knows the exact date when he will be free again. Not the ISA detainee. This is in the design of the method of punishment – mental torture every day of detention. To use this law is in total violation of the norms of a free, fair and humane society.
Equality and Freedom of Expression are pillars of Human Rights. Human Rights is the foundation of a just and free society. To deny equality and the freedom of expression is to continue to bottle in the true potentialities of our society. Only through the processes of maintaining equality and allowing freedom of expression do societies establish a basis for prosperity and progress for all in society. The voices speaking up to realize this must be allowed to be heard.
The Internal Security Act flies in the face of all of this wisdom.
We the Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP),call upon the Home Minister to immediately abolish the draconian ISA and shut down “Malaysia’s Guantanamo Bay” Kamunting ISA Detention Camp and to move on forward with the wishes of the people.
“Rights not Mercy”
N. Ganesan
Adviser
Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP)
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