MCA today expressed support for PPP president M Kayveas who called on the government to amend the Internal Security Act (ISA) before the next general election.

"The government should amend provisions in the ISA which is not suitable and which is already outdated to prevent the ISA from being abused by irresponsible parties and to restore the people's confidence in the government," said MCA central committee member Wong Nai Chee in a statement.

wong nai chee"The ISA should be amended to bring in more checks and balances to be conducted by the court. This is to ensure that judicial review could be conducted to scrutinise the grounds of the detention and whether such grounds are in accordance with the spirit of the act," he added.

Citing last week's terror attacks in India, Wong said the prevention aspects of the ISA is still crucial to curb terrorism.

On a political note, the MCA leader said he understands the worries faced by the PPP president that Malaysians are concerned about the ISA, and if BN fails to reform, the people will lose confidence in the ruling coalition.

"Through the BN channel and also our representatives in the cabinet, MCA will continue to urge the government to amend the ISA.

"The party also hopes that all other BN component parties will work together with MCA in pushing for the amendment of the ISA to prevent it from being misused," he added.

Good governance needed

Yesterday, Kayveas had warned that if the government fails to amend the security law - which provides for detention without trial - PPP will leave the ruling coalition.

kayveasIn a hard hitting speech, the outspoken BN leader said the coalition must make the changes before the next polls.

"It is suicidal if we do not plan the next general elections. The problem with Barisan was its success in the past 50 years. Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

"The March elections has already shown what the voters are looking for good governance and multiracialism. The Barisan has conducted numerous post-mortems at all levels to gather input on what went wrong and why the voters rejected Barisan.

"The solution has always been multi-racialism but to date Barisan is still caught in its own political racial configuration – that what is being spoken is not being implemented fast enough," he added.

Umno division slammed

In a related development, the PPP Federal Territory division took the Umno Tanjung Malim division to task for telling PPP to leave BN.

"The Umno division has no right to make this statement. What was put forward by Kayveas are the feelings and calls from the party's Youth and Wanita wings about the ISA.

"It was not a threat but rather a message to BN... and what is wrong in expressing such opinions in a democratic society?" asked PPP Federal Territory information chief A Chandrakumanan in a statement.

Calling on Perak Umno divisional leaders to adopt a more mature mindset, he reminded them that such irrational thinking was the one which caused BN to lose the state.

"Kayveas did not ask for the ISA to be abolished, but asked the government to make realistic amendments which are in line with the present situation. Is this too much?" he stated.