By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP Life Adviser
PM NAJIB RAZAK SHOULD ABOLISH THE ISA IF HE IS TO KEEP TO HIS PROMISE TO BUILD A 1MALAYSIA, AS THE ISA IS AN ANTIQUATED REPRESSIVE LAW, AND WILL RETARD MALAYSIA TO BECOME A MODERN PROGRESSIVE AND PROSPEROUS MALAYSIA.
The ISA was introduced in the era when the Malayan Communist Party fought to control the country, at which time Tunku Abdul Rahman was the Prime Minister.
Communism is not a threat any more. Chin Peng the chief of the Malayan Communist Party surrendered at a widely publicised surrender ceremony at Baling. Later Russia and China, the two largest communist countries in the world, also announced their rejection of communism to dominate the world.
Today there is no threat of communism in Malaysia, and the ISA has become an anomaly. However, it is being retained by Barisan not to deal against communists, but to harass and oppress the Opposition political parties. Opposition leaders who speak up for democracy, for justice and transparency are summarily arrested under the ISA and detained for years without trial.
This is a gross miscarriage of justice. The democratic Opposition wants the ISA to be abolished and not just ‘amended’ as proposed by PM Najib.
PM Najib, suggested that the Opposition could have dialogue with him, as he is prepared to amend the ISA.
For the information of the people, the Opposition, the Bar Council, NGOs have’ for years voiced their protests against the ISA. But the BN government has stubbornly refused to listen, and instead have continued using the ISA against all those who chose to exercise their fundamental rights of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
BECAUSE THE PM REFUSED TO LISTEN TO THE YEAR UPON YEAR OF CALLS FOR ABOLISHING THE ISA, THE PR LEADERS AFTER CAREFUL CONSIDERATION, FELT IT FIT TO ORGANISE A PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY AS A WAKE UP CALL TO THE PM.
PR leaders, Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Hadi Awang, are within their rights to call for a peaceful assembly, because according to the UN Declaration of Human Rights ‘EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY AND ASSOCIATION’. This is the inalienable right of a person, as guaranteed by the UN charter on human rights.
PR assembly was planned to be peaceful. It was the police who raised the tension and provoked anger from the assembly because they used tear gas and water cannons.
It was the police who created a lock up of Kuala Lumpur streets and also all roads leading into KL because of the erection of police blocks at every intersection.
If KL lost 200 millions ringgits of business, the blame should be laid fully on the police.
If there is to be a talk between PM and PR is should not be on how to amend the ISA but how to replace it with a new law to deal with the new threat of terrorism.
UMNO’s existence and survival depend on enforcement of the ISA. They leverage on the ISA to gain upper-hand so as to silent the Opposition parties.
If ISA is abolished, there will be no UMNO. Do you think Najib is so silly to get the ISA abolished?
never dream of it. this is their kris.. weapon to do what they want. they are not silly.. i agree with yhsiew… one malaysia, become only melayu now.
“If there is to be a talk between PM and PR is should not be on how to amend the ISA but how to replace it with a new law to deal with the new threat of terrorism.” Dr Chen
Why introduce a new law when there is already one which can do the work just as well?? Why fix something when it is not broken?
It is just applied to the wrong person or persons. The ISA was never meant to stifle political dissent.
The threat we face today is still terrorism. It used to be from the communists bent on creating havoc any which way they could. Today it is Islamic terrorists who would stop at nothing even giving up their lives – a different kind of enemy. But the aim is the same though the enemy may look different. Terror is the objective..
The idea is to incorporate controls, checks and balances – to bring back judicial review and let the court decide if detention is unlawful.
ISA should be abolished, period. It has been abused numerous of times by UMNO in the past, present and the definite future. There should be an aggressive reintroduction of law and order in the country whereby a person should be tried accordingly and not the whils and fancy of a pathetic politician. we don’t want in particular a learned pundit to be imprisoned just on the accounts of a ‘paraya’ politician who isn’t even qualified to be his servant!
I agree.
The ISA must be abolished as it’s indefinite detention period is a dangerous weapon against Liberty in anyone’s hands.
I hope the link attached here helps to put the ISA in Malaysia in the right perspective so that you can see it for the grotesquely bad law that it is.
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2008-10-13&number=1&house=lords&dmp=1039
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
During some news, the rusa hitam said assembly is illegal. He might be true, but is he the judge who determine what is legal and what is not and what is the best interest for general Malaysian.
We can build a Protest Square, for people to picket, in this way, govt. official can take note what people are picketing today. You can also collect ballots to see the response of your protest. This is one way to be a responsible government who listen and respect the people.
All the MPs of PR are highly likely to be arrested under ISA in the next general election if PR is given the mandate to rule Malaysia. Be alert!.
Just abolish ISA and no more excuses.
TDM, Shit Hamid, plus all the real devils, should be given the privilege to taste ISA.
as far as my knowlege is concerned,i see there are no disadvantages or harm by imposing the ISA.all the detainees had been detained by a specific reason,i.e the actus reus of the offence had been existed.however there are situations when the intention or the mens rea could not be proven by the authority.n bcause of that the offender had been charged under the what so-called cruel law,ISA.it is true that by imposing this law it seems to breach the right of the person.but how about our country?what if thre is really a threat to the govt?what should we do?just sit down n let it to be happend?
i dont agreed wit RABBIT.1 m’sia means there is no different between all races in m’sia.why the issue on race had always be questioned?why not we all respect each other n live happily together in this country.why the position is so important?why,why n why…
the ISA need to be amended and not to be abolished…think carefully before jump to the conclusion..the rights of the public is most important than the interest of the party!