Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang today urged minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim to explain if his book on the Internal Security Act (ISA) was a "fairy tale".

"He must explain if that was why he is not standing by the book. If so, Rais had committed a fraud on the Malaysian people by publishing the book," said the DAP national chairperson.

He said Rais must also declare whether he would defray those who had bought the book wrongly believing that it was a serious study on the rule of law and executive powers in Malaysia.

Lim was commenting on Rais' statement yesterday that the views he had expressed in his book, Freedom under the Executive Power in Malaysia, were merely an academic exercise.

Rais had said that his stand on the ISA as expressed in the book was for academic purposes and should not be held against him for the rest of his life.

Contradicting views

Rais wrote the book six years ago for his doctoral thesis. His current stand in supporting the use of the ISA, an about-turn from what he had opined in his book, came under much criticism, especially from DAP.

"Rais sent shockwaves through the legal and judicial profession, the legal academia as well as the informed citizenry by claiming that the book was merely an academic study," said Lim.

"I can agree with Rais that one should not expect a person's views to remain unchanged for the whole of his life.

"But any such change of views should be able to stand up to public scrutiny and debate with reasons and arguments, and not because of sheer opportunism," added Lim.

He added that Rais' claims were "outrageous and preposterous" as it contradicted with the preface he wrote in the book.

According to Lim, in the preface Rais said he wrote the book based on the "shocking ease with which the executive government sacked the judiciary" and on questions of how long "the executive continue to render subservient basic rights and innate powers of the judiciary".

Lim challenged Rais to explain if he never believed in any of the conclusions reached in his book with regard to the encroachment of executive power on the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and parliamentary sovereignty.

In a separate statement, DAP vice-chairperson Lim Guan Eng said if the public were to accept Rais' explanation that his views in the book were merely an academic exercise, "then he should return his doctorate to the university that awarded him".