Syed Husin: ISA a hydra with many heads
Terence NettoPublished: May 5, 2014 2:50 AM | Updated: May 5, 2014 2:54 AM
Selangor Senator Dr Syed Husin Ali has described the Internal Security Act (ISA), which was abolished in 2012 and replaced by the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma), as a “hydra with many heads; lop one off, another sprouts up”.
Selangor Senator Dr Syed Husin Ali has described the Internal Security Act (ISA), which was abolished in 2012 and replaced by the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma), as a “hydra with many heads; lop one off, another sprouts up”.
Describing renewed urgings for the return of the abolished ISA, the former deputy president of PKR told Malaysiakini that the essence of the draconian law that was passed in 1960 and supposedly consigned to oblivion two years ago, was “detention without trial” which he said “is an abomination, as despicable a half-century ago as it is today”.
“Some features of the abolished ISA were inserted into its replacement, Sosma, and were accompanied by the assurance that the new law would not be used against people on grounds of their political beliefs,” said Syed Husin.
The senator said this assurance has turned out to be delusive because “just the other day, an activist belonging to Solidarity Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) was arrested under Sosma.”
The activist, Seidin Ismail, has been held under Sosma which allows for a period of detention without the necessity of producing the detainee in a court of law.
“As far as we know, Seidin is a political detainee and not a security threat. Hence it is not permissible that he should be held under Sosma,” opined Syed Husin.
He said the notion the ISA has been consigned to oblivion is false because features of it have been replicated in Sosma.
“So the abolished ISA is a hydra whose head has been cut off but it sprouts another just as soon as you think we have done with it,” asserted Syed Husin (left).
He said that urgings in the wake of the arrests of 11 alleged terror suspects under Sosma for a new law resembling the ISA were “an overkill the citizenry should not fall for”.
“First of all, we cannot be sure that what the police say about the detained suspects and of their links to terror plots is true and secondly, we should not abandon the consensus that has now settled around the belief that detention without trial is an abomination that a democracy must not abide,” argued Syed Husin.
He said he felt it was strange that former inspector-general of police Rahim Noor, who read “the fine print on the agreement between the Malaysian government and the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) well such that he agreed, contrary to his peers, that the late Chin Peng should have been allowed into the country, should now contend that there is renewed need for another ISA when some of its features are already subsumed by Sosma.”
“His opinion does not show the care he took in reading provisions of the government’s agreement with the CPM,” observed Syed Husin.
‘Need for vigilance with respect for all laws’
“We have to be vigilant with respect to all laws, particularly those with regard to security because the hydra of detention without trial is virtually something you cannot slay with certainty that it would not resurrect itself in some another form,” he expatiated.
He said it was delusive of Rahim Noor (right) to contend that the government had extirpated the threat of deviant religious sects through the use of the ISA.
“We have to be vigilant with respect to all laws, particularly those with regard to security because the hydra of detention without trial is virtually something you cannot slay with the certainty that it would not resurrect itself in some other form,” he expatiated.
“Deviant ideologies there will always be, but the point is: Are they insurrectionist or merely heretical? If insurrectionary, they are a threat to security, but if merely heretical, they should be allowed in a democracy and countered by argument, debate and enlightenment, not by repression through detention without trial,” Syed Husin concluded.
Describing renewed urgings for the return of the abolished ISA, the former deputy president of PKR told Malaysiakini that the essence of the draconian law that was passed in 1960 and supposedly consigned to oblivion two years ago, was “detention without trial” which he said “is an abomination, as despicable a half-century ago as it is today”.
“Some features of the abolished ISA were inserted into its replacement, Sosma, and were accompanied by the assurance that the new law would not be used against people on grounds of their political beliefs,” said Syed Husin.
The senator said this assurance has turned out to be delusive because “just the other day, an activist belonging to Solidarity Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) was arrested under Sosma.”
The activist, Seidin Ismail, has been held under Sosma which allows for a period of detention without the necessity of producing the detainee in a court of law.
“As far as we know, Seidin is a political detainee and not a security threat. Hence it is not permissible that he should be held under Sosma,” opined Syed Husin.
He said the notion the ISA has been consigned to oblivion is false because features of it have been replicated in Sosma.
“So the abolished ISA is a hydra whose head has been cut off but it sprouts another just as soon as you think we have done with it,” asserted Syed Husin (left).He said that urgings in the wake of the arrests of 11 alleged terror suspects under Sosma for a new law resembling the ISA were “an overkill the citizenry should not fall for”.
“First of all, we cannot be sure that what the police say about the detained suspects and of their links to terror plots is true and secondly, we should not abandon the consensus that has now settled around the belief that detention without trial is an abomination that a democracy must not abide,” argued Syed Husin.
He said he felt it was strange that former inspector-general of police Rahim Noor, who read “the fine print on the agreement between the Malaysian government and the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) well such that he agreed, contrary to his peers, that the late Chin Peng should have been allowed into the country, should now contend that there is renewed need for another ISA when some of its features are already subsumed by Sosma.”
“His opinion does not show the care he took in reading provisions of the government’s agreement with the CPM,” observed Syed Husin.
‘Need for vigilance with respect for all laws’
“We have to be vigilant with respect to all laws, particularly those with regard to security because the hydra of detention without trial is virtually something you cannot slay with certainty that it would not resurrect itself in some another form,” he expatiated.
He said it was delusive of Rahim Noor (right) to contend that the government had extirpated the threat of deviant religious sects through the use of the ISA.“We have to be vigilant with respect to all laws, particularly those with regard to security because the hydra of detention without trial is virtually something you cannot slay with the certainty that it would not resurrect itself in some other form,” he expatiated.
“Deviant ideologies there will always be, but the point is: Are they insurrectionist or merely heretical? If insurrectionary, they are a threat to security, but if merely heretical, they should be allowed in a democracy and countered by argument, debate and enlightenment, not by repression through detention without trial,” Syed Husin concluded.
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