It is very distressing to hear that a student in USM will face disciplinary charges for taking a stand against the ISA. There is a world of difference between taking a stand against a repressive law and taking a stand against the government as a whole. It is even more sad to think that a university, headed by intellectuals, cannot see this difference.

The ISA allows for preventive detention, which runs contrary to the carefully constructed criminal law system that contains many safeguards to prevent abuse of the process. More than this, it has to all purposes be excluded from any form of meaningful judicial review.

It doesn't matter which side of the political divide one belongs to, the law is objectively unfair and oppressive. Preventive detention laws should only exist within very carefully constructed boundaries and be subjected to a full and frank review of an independent judiciary.

The government of late appears to be unable to separate its function as the executive against its function as the legislature. Parliament has made this law and Parliament has the power to amend it. Parliament is made up of representatives of the people, the 'rakyat'.

Parliament is not just the government; the Dewan Rakyat is a body of people democratically elected to represent the 'rakyat'. The members of parliament sit in their seats as the representatives of the people. This they must not forget, whether they are from the government or the opposition, in Parliament, they are there as representatives of their constituents.

Does it not stand to reason that the 'rakyat' be given every opportunity to make their views known? Every person should be free to express his dissent in a non-violent manner. Selling badges and putting up posters are not revolutionary and dangerous activities, they are simply expressions of honestly held beliefs. The freedom to hold an opinion, to express one's views, to be truly represented in the legislature ... this is democracy.