I am baffled why Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai is keeping quiet these days. His silence and sudden disappearance from the public eye only raise suspicions that he is guilty of the charges that have been levelled against him and he has absolutely nothing to defend himself.

He cannot claim to have 'qualified privileges' after saying what he had on the people whom he personally ordered their arrests last year.

I am surprised as to why the people in the Bukit Aman legal department and attorney-general's office didn't caution him about making ludicrous allegations that were published wide and far.

Most probably they all did; if so, then they too, are equally as liable as Norian.

The shield of invincibility and prowess that Norain thinks he had especially when he was giving the press conference at Bukit Aman on Oct 10, 2001 has now been proven to be just a veneer so thin that it could easily been destroyed by the gush of judicial wind.

I am afraid his future looks bleak more so now than ever before. He should just tender his resignation like former IGP Rahim Noor.

Despite RTM's latest effort to improve Rahim's image, it still fails to convince the Malaysian public. Ironically, it only managed to remind people how he had wilfully bashed up Anwar Ibrahim.

The Federal Court's ruling that the police were unlawful in the initial detention of the ISA 5 cannot be left unanswered by Norian or the police and government leaders.

It is the most damning thing to have ever happened to any IGP in Malaysia, never mind that the court of public opinion had long ago rendered him impotent in upholding democracy and liberty to protect the Federal Constitution.

Therefore, without going into details of what the judges had concluded, it is prudent for Norian to tender his resignation immediately so that he can prepare for his court case.

How could Norian Mai make his 'comeback' as a respected IGP from now on?

For one, he has lost all credibility to be the IGP. Nobody in Malaysia trusts him anymore. And if there is another mass arrest of people under the ISA, it will have to be done more carefully and creatively without being equally crude and outrageous.

One now wonders if the mass arrests of people under ISA in 1987 and 1975 or even earlier when those arrested were charged as communists, were also done in bad faith?

Even up to this date those who were charged have never been proven to be involved in whatever crimes that they were said to have committed.

But 1975 and 1987 were different times in the epoch of the country. Today, more and more Malaysians do not trust the police and its leaders. They have over and over again proven to be unreliable and not genuine.

Norian has failed to rebut the allegations and his silence speaks volumes. It shakes the very foundation of Bukit Aman  why doesn't he release the ISA detainees concerned and let the police and IGP do whatever that they think is right. Re-arrest them and let the Malaysian public see if this is not done in bad faith or not.

Legally, by continuing to detain the said ISA detainees, including malaysiakini's columnist, Hishamuddin Rais, the police and government are perpetuating a serious crime.

True, the ISA detainees can easily file civil law suits against the home minister, IGP and all the officers in the police as well as the Kamunting Detention Centre in their personal as well as official capacities, maybe even the International Court of Justice.

I wish them well.