ISA not the antidote for achieving peace

Using the Internal Security Act 1960 or ISA to instill fear in the people is not the antidote to achieving peace. Fear breeds rebellion and this the ruling government/s must never forget. In the event a threat to national peace and stability is detected, there has to be a humane way of arresting it instead of resorting to barbaric ways.

The ISA, which Malaysia inherited from British post-independence in 1957, originally meant for a specific purpose has over the years been manipulated to suit the whims and fancies of the law makers, resulting in this piece of Act being labelled as draconian and machiaevellian.

The original purpose of the ISA was for it to be used against communists but today just about anyone can be threatened with the ISA, be they writers or human rights activists. In 1960, the government passed the ISA under Article 149 of the Malaysian Constitution, making preventive detention a permanent feature of Malaysian law.

The justification of the law makers is that anything said or written that puts the country in a bad light or that which reflects ill of the national religion, Islam, is a definite ISA trigger. They miss the point that the ISA is not the only mechanism available to restore peace and order in the country and to punish trouble makers.

But the ISA is seen as the penalty that works in keeping trouble makers away for a long long time with all their fundamental rights stripped off. This way of trying to restore peace has backfired many a times and will continue to do so.

There is an urgent and a long overdue need to redefine the true purpose of the ISA and whether or not it is needed at all. It is very unfortunate that instead of accepting reality, the government has taken the coward’s way out in meting punishment to so-called trouble makers by slapping them with the ISA charge.

This certainly will not solve the actual problem at hand, which is that resentment has built up within the people against government policies which are deemed biased. In other countries, going to the streets and protesting is a norm and an exercise of the citizen’s right but in Malaysia such action is seen as a threat to national security.

No wonder that many non-governmental organisations are becoming passive in tackling the real issues, those which affect the people of this country.

The use of harsh laws like the ISA only goes to show that the government is bent on punishing its people who speak up against matters deemed "sensitive", by exposing them to the most severe form of punishment and for Malaysia it is the ISA.

But the government has stubbornly failed to accept the truth that the ISA is not going to break the spirit of those individuals who believe in the truth and are willing to toil in bringing about changes the nation so desperately needs.

Apathy has become the order of the day in Malaysia and the existence of draconian laws like the ISA has only fueled apathy among the people, to the extent that truth has become a rare commodity which only the brave few are willing to reveal. The government must realise that no amount of bullying can turn the people into sycophants, fearful of the fate that lies behind the face of the ISA.

The indiscriminate use of the ISA has resulted in the death of fundamental freedom, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The blatant violation of these rights vis-à-vis the ISA has worsened the scenario on the home lawn where calls after calls were and are still being made for this inhumane law to be repelled. It remains a mystery of sorts why the government is reluctant to re-look the ISA and work at revoking its draconian aspects.

Efforts are very much overdue in giving the ISA a second, third and several looks. Elements in the ISA that go against the grain of fundamental rights must be eliminated and the Act must serve its purpose without playing the role of the executioner.

At present the Act is notorious for its "condemned guilty" reputation, which many an activists have cried against. Yet, the government remains indifferent towards the pressure to review the role of this Act and the need to do away with it.

Before the government assumes the public is naïve in not understanding the need for the ISA, let it be informed that such an Act certainly goes against all basic human rights, which means in today’s time the ISA is a breach against human rights.

And in spite of this the government is adamant that the ISA is relevant and is indispensable. Is this really so, that the ISA cannot be done away with? Is the ISA carved on stone that it cannot be changed?

From the not so long street protests that shook the country, it has become clear that the people are now aware of their rights and will no longer allow anyone to trample upon them. This new awareness shown by the people is what is worrying the government, to the extent that it will do anything to silent the rising voices, ultimately leading to the death of freedom of the people.

Freedom comes with responsibility, so goes a saying. There is no denying that the country’s harmony rests on the foundation of peace and stability between its people of various ethnic backgrounds. And there is no denying that people must be responsible in whatever they say.

However, there has to be a better way of punishing those who make irresponsible and insensitive statements than through the ISA where they are thrown behind bars at the pleasure of the government.

What an irony if the words of Malaysia’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman on the role of the ISA are to be understood. Tunku had defined the purpose of the Act as to "be used solely against the communists…My Cabinet colleagues and I gave a solemn promise to Parliament and the nation that the immense powers given to the government under the ISA would never be used to stifle legitimate opposition and silence lawful dissent".

Malaysia’s first internal security minister Ismail Abdul Rahman in commenting to criticism that the ISA was undemocratic or open to much abuse, had replied among others that he was convinced that the ISA as practised in Malaysia is not contrary to the fundamentals of democracy. And that abuse of the ISA could be prevented by vigilant public opinion via elections, a free press and above all the Parliament.

With passing time everything changes and the ISA should be no exception. There is no reason why the ISA cannot be improved upon with the human rights emphasis not ignored.

The call for change or re-look to the ISA has come down strongly but yet the government adopted the audacity to declare that there was no need for the ISA to be reviewed. The Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar was reported in the newspapers as saying that the ISA would not be reviewed or repelled for now adding that such preventive laws were still needed for the people to live in peace and security. To contradict himself, Syed Hamid went on to say that the ISA could be reviewed "when the time was right".

One can only wonder what Syed Hamid meant by "when the time is right". Is he waiting for anarchy in the country to justify the right time to review the ISA? Is the present turmoil facing the country not bad enough a reason to re-look the effectiveness of the ISA?

Such twaddle coming from a Home Minister is only going to throw the country into chaos, if it has not already. It is very apparent that despite having a legal background, Syed Hamid has zero understanding of the role the law plays in determining peace and harmony in a country.

Laws while punitive in nature must not end up raping the perpetrator or culprit of their basic rights. It is so very unfortunate for the country that its Home Minister is inept in handling an issue so delicate like the ISA.

It will do Syed Hamid Albar good if he takes the trouble to understand public sentiments to really know the situation on the ground. The call made by the Bar Council that the ISA be done away with must be taken note of.

Not only the ISA but several other laws which allow for detention without trial such as the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance 1969 and the Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measure) Act 1985 be abolished, urged the Bar Council.

Using the ISA to punish someone is akin to the stop-gap measure applied by doctors in treating patients, whereby medicine is given to stop the pain and not address the root cause of the pain.

But like the Perlis mufti Dr Asri Zainul Abidin so aptly said "detaining someone under the ISA for committing religious offences will not stop misunderstanding about Islam", the Home Minister must come to his senses quickly and realise the damaging role of the ISA.

How did Syed Hamid ever have the cheek to rationalise that the arrest of Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng under the ISA was to protect her when the truth out there told a different story? It is obvious who is the coward here, is it not?

If only our politicians are not morally bankrupt the country would certainly have been a great place to stay. But sadly, this is not the case. It is no secret that politicians from Umno had criticised the ISA but later ate their own words and made the ISA their ally.

Take the current prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as an example. On-line encyclopedia Wikipedia states that in 1988 Abdullah stated "if we want to save Malaysia and Umno, Dr Mahathir Mohamad (then prime minister) must be removed. He used draconian laws such as the ISA to silence his critics". The year before Abdullah had remarked "Laws such as the ISA have no place in modern Malaysia. It is a draconian and barbaric law".

But when in 2003 Abdullah became the prime minister he called the ISA "a necessary law", arguing that "We have never misused the Internal Security Act. All those detained under the ISA are proven threats to society".

Dr Mahathir’s pretentious stand on the ISA is just as hypocritic. As a backbencher in 1966 he spoke against the ISA saying " no one in his right senses like/s the ISA. It is in fact a negation of all the principles of democracy.

But when he became the prime minister he had little hesitation in using the ISA to suppress what he regarded as racialism. His move however was seen as a stand against his political opponents, the most notable being the infamous Operasi Lalang in 1987 which saw politicians like Karpal Singh and Lim Kit Siang being detained under the ISA.

Since its existence, the ISA has been used to arrest student leaders, trade unionists, labour activists, political activists, religious groups, academicians and non-governmental organisations activists, with many political activists having been detained at the Kamunting Detention Centre for over a decade.