updated version

An Islamic scholar, himself a former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee, today expressed ''deep distress'' that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had once again unleashed ''the terror of the law against his political foes''.

Dr Munawar A Anees, jailed ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's former speech writer, said the detention was yet more evidence of a moral bankruptcy where the ''state apparatus is made to serve the cause of a political clan''.

"The Malaysian police, the judiciary and the media are touching new heights in legitimising injustice and suppression of dissent," he said in a [#1] letter [/#] to malaysiakini .

"More so when Mahathir himself has made a declaration to defy norms of civilised behaviour," he added.

Munawar, who is now living in the United States, was responding to the arrest of seven reformasi activists under the ISA this week for supposedly planning to topple the government through violent street demonstrations and other militant tactics.

They seven are Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua, party Youth leaders Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, N Gobalakrishnan and Abdul Ghani Harun, Free Anwar Campaign (Freeanwar.com) webmaster Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin, social activist-cum- malaysiakini columnist Hishamuddin Rais and activist Saari Sungib.

Foregone conclusion

Munawar was detained under the ISA for 126 days from Sept 14 two years ago immediately after Anwar was sacked from his government post. Munawar was later declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

The academic said that in keeping with its "immoral and un-Islamic behaviour", the government had made specific allegations against the current ISA detainees without an iota of evidence.

"This reminds me of the totally false and slanderous statements the Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad made about me after ordering my kidnapping," he said.

"Just like in my case, it is a forgone conclusion that the Malaysian police will shamelessly fabricate evidence to implicate these new ISA detainees," he added.

Munawar said despite "the crushing weight of oppression" in Malaysia, the public's mood appears to be changing.

"There seems to be a greater resolve for the assertion of individual rights."

Animal cage

Munawar said he held Mahathir personally responsible for the "heinous crime" against himself and his family.

He recalled that he was "searched, seized, disallowed to make phone calls, handcuffed, blindfolded, stripped naked, driven into an animal cage, shaven bald, endlessly interrogated, humiliated, drugged, deprived of sleep, physically abused, threatened, blackmailed, tormented by police lawyers, and brutalised into making a totally false confession" while in ISA detention.

He said that he was later hospitalised for a consequent heart ailment and treated as a psychiatric patient with symptoms of Stockholm syndrome.