Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's comment that he has yet to receive a report from the police on their investigation on the 10 citizens detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) is truly shocking (Pak Lah yet to receive report on ISA 10, May 18).

The men had been detained for over a month when he made that remark. Such a cavalier attitude does not bode well for the country, coming as it is from a man who will be the next prime minister.

The ISA, with its provision for preventive detention without trial, is meant to protect the stability and security of Malaysia from subversive elements. Surely the minister must have had some evidence of the dangers posed by these individuals for him to order their detention.

Thus once they were detained, the minister should be intensely interested in the details of their supposedly treacherous plot. Were there dangerous weapons stashed away, and was this part of a larger conspiracy, possibly with foreign involvement?

Had their interrogations revealed a more serious threat, the minister would want that information quickly so appropriate preemptive measures could be taken. By waiting passively for a report from his subordinates, the minister wasted precious time.

Malaysians tolerate the ISA partly because we have seen how quickly society's stability can be easily disrupted, and with disastrous consequences. One merely has to look at Indonesia and Sri Lanka to be reminded of this grim reality.

Better that we jail a few, ISA apologists argue, if that prevents Malaysia from degenerating into another Bosnia.

An abomination

To me, the ISA is an abomination. I live in America and hold dearly my freedom. The Bill of Rights enshrined in the American Constitution protects citizens and non-citizens alike from the arbitrary powers of government.

Despite the separation of power, with its delicate checks and balances that is the genius of the American system, egregious abuses do occur. The Watergate scandal of the 1970s was perhaps the most pervasive and disturbing.

More recently, the coziness of the FBI and the White House resulted in confidential files of many Americans being surreptitiously viewed by Clinton's political operatives. And who could forget the eerie video images of Rodney King being senselessly beaten by Los Angeles finest.

As long as humans wield power, there will be abuses: hence the importance of checks and balances. The process must also be transparent, with adequate and effective review mechanism.

The more awesome the power, the more we must have meaningful oversight. It is not so much that power corrupts; rather we do not have a fail-safe system that prevents the inherently corrupt from becoming powerful. That the decision of a mere minister is not subject to judicial review is the most menacing aspect of the ISA.

If indeed the Act is for the protection of Malaysian society, as its supporters suggest, then it has failed miserably. ISA did not prevent the May 13, 1969 tragedy, the Memali massacre, or more recently, the equally deadly Petaling Jaya Selatan melee.

Surprisingly, the government chose not to use this powerful statute to arrest members of the Al-Ma'unah group. Instead it charged them with waging war against the King. Surely such a crime is the ultimate threat to our peace.

If there is one situation where the ISA would have been appropriate, this is it. But the government opted for an open trial where its evidence was subjected to cross-examination and public display. There is no indication that our security and safety are compromised by the open trial.

If the Al-Ma'unah members were apprehended without using the ISA, I see no compelling reason why the 10 presently detained under that Act could not be treated in a similar manner. If, as has been intimated, the ISA detainees were bent on overthrowing the legally elected government of Malaysia through violent street demonstrations, charge them with inciting a riot.

Get the evidences out in the open so the public could scrutinise them. Reveal the evil intent of these perpetrators. If prosecutors can credibly present their case in the Al-Ma'unah trial, they can do the same for the ISA detainees. ISA was not meant to be a substitute for incompetent prosecutors or inept police investigation.

Crude weapon

Truth is, the ISA is presently being used not to protect the public but as a crude weapon to coerce the government's increasingly effective critics. Distressingly, the law is also used to silence political adversaries as well as scholars who preach a brand of Islam not to the administration's liking.

Malaysia rightly prides itself on its religious tolerance. But it has one glaring blind spot: it does not tolerate 'deviationist' Islamic teachings. Islam in Malaysia is what the bureaucrats in the Islamic Department deem it to be.

One deviates at one's own earthly peril. Such attempt at thought control is inimical to Islam. Our faith flourishes only in an environment of freedom. If the government feels that Shiism, for example, is a 'deviationist' and subversive faith that threatens our stability, why does it have diplomatic relations with Iran?

Earlier in our nation's history, when the government deemed communism dangerous, it rightly did not allow diplomatic relations with any communist country.

Taking away without due process a citizen's freedom is serious. It is disgraceful that the honorable minister would delegate such enormous power to lowly bureaucrats. I would have thought that as minister in charge, Abdullah Badawi would give such decisions the solemnity they rightly deserve.

To hear him say that he is in effect "out of the loop" is simply mind-boggling. Abdullah Badawi's remark reflects, at best, a flippancy that is grossly inappropriate; at worse, a callousness and sinister mindset. These are our fellow citizens whose freedom is being violated.

He acts as if such important decisions are not worthy of his personal attention and deliberation. Abdullah's immediate predecessor as home minister was similarly detached at a very critical time.

Symbolic sultan

As a result, Mahathir's former rogue police chief embarrassed the nation to the whole world with that infamous slug on a helpless prisoner, Anwar Ibrahim.

I would be comforted had Abdullah said that he was indeed following the situation closely and that jailing someone without trial was a decision he took with a heavy heart, but due to the sensitive nature of the investigations, he was unable to divulge the details.

I would still oppose his decision but at least I know that he had discharged his duty diligently, and that he had not used that immense power arbitrarily and capriciously. Or worse, delegated that awesome authority to his underlings. As we have seen, it takes only one overzealous officer to humiliate the nation.

I expect ministers to be chief executives, on top of matters under their authority. Abdullah Badawi, if he is truly unaware of the circumstances of the arrests, is behaving more like a symbolic sultan rather than an engaged executive. If this pattern of behaviour portends his future performance as prime minister, Malaysians ought to be worried.