Abolish ISA?

Cattleya: First bloom from my mini garden

If all people can be as pure as this orchid, I think laws are irrelevant.




Abolish ISA Movement has a new supporter in Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, former Prime Minister of Malaysia. This is perhaps the strongest voice yet in support of abolising the law seen by many as very restrictive and draconian.

No doubt the Government will take due cognizance of this new support. But the reality is whether the law, a remnant of the Malayan Emergency, is still relevant in the present circumstances.

The recent Jakarta bombing of two international hotels will not go unnoticed by the Government and rightly so.

In principle, I believe, under the present circumstances, many would agree that the law should remain but some amendments have to be made to the law to reduce its "harshness".

Prof Reginald Hugh Hickling, when he was at the AG Chambers, was responsible for drafting the ISA when Malaya wanted to end the 12-year Malayan Emergency in 1960. There were safeguards in the law but these safeguards were taken away over the years when amendments were made to the law.

In an obituary, New Straits Times said: In 1989, Hickling wrote, "I could not imagine then that the time would come when the power of detention, carefully and deliberately interlocked with Article 149 of the Constitution, would be used against political opponents, welfare workers and others dedicated to non-violent, peaceful activities." (See The Malayan Bar web portal, and NST, 28 February, 2007).

Hickling made it very clear that ISA was meant for "organised crime" as stated in its preamble.

Although in the past Hickling had questioned the application of the ISA, last year he spoke about his change of mind over the issue following worldwide terrorist attacks, the NST said.

In one of my meetings with Prof Hickling when he was in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and on his brief visits, I asked his view on repealing the ISA. He said the law that should be repealed was the Printing Presses and Publications Act. In his view, the PPPA would have a greater impact than the ISA, as the ISA affected a "small" number of people.

Probably in looking at the possibility of amending the ISA, the amendments made to the law should be revisited and to restore the "safeguards" provided for in the original law.

When the ISA was debated in Parliament in 1960, PAS President, Dato' Mohamed Asri Muda reminded the Government that the law was meant to combat Communism.

The archietct of ISA, Prof Hickling, passed away on Feb 11, 2007 in England at the age of 86.