While many of us are zealously waiting to see who will win 2008 US election, this article presents a desperate need for change in another corner of the world - Malaysia.

Thousands of Malaysians need your help to abolish the injustice controversial Internal Security Act, which grants the government immerse power to detain an individual without a trial for up to 2 years! And later the detention can be renewed indefinitely!!!

The preventive detention was enacted before the independence of the country to deter communist activity during the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960. The law allowed the detention of an individual for no more than 1 year. Upon the ending of the emergency, the ordinance was repealed. The power of preventive detention however was not relinquished but embedded in the Internal Security Act (ISA) under Article 149 of the Malaysian Constitution.

The act permits the government to arrest an individual, without charge or trial, of whom the government is satisfied that such detention is necessary to prevent the individual from conducting any prejudicial action towards national security or to the maintenance of essential services or to the economic life in Malaysia. Under ISA, an individual could be detained for a period up to 2 years, and the detention could be indefinitely extended thereafter for periods not exceeding 2 years at a time. That being said, the government can arrest anyone whom subjectively deemed threatful to the nation for an indefinite duration, without a trial or charge.

The first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, 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". The third Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn, stated at the same time that his administration had enforced the act only with a view to curb communist activity, and not to repress "lawful political opposition and democratic citizen activity". [Reference]

Since 1960 when the act was signed into the constitution, thousands of people including trade unionists, student leaders, labor activists, political activists, religious groups, and many others have been detained. Such act has widely known by the locals as a convenient instrument for the government to suppress opposition voices.

In response to criticism that the ISA was not democratic or was too open to abuse, based on a report in New Straits Times dated Jan 2, 2007, the first internal security minister, Ismail Abdul Rahman, stated:

"I maintained then and I maintain now the view that the Internal Security Act is essential to the security of this country especially when democracy is interpreted the way it is interpreted in this country. To those in opposition to the government democracy is interpreted to mean absolute freedom, even the freedom to subvert the nation. When cornered by the argument that democracy in the Western sense means freedom in an ordered society and an ordered society is one in which the rule of law prevails, they seek refuge in the slogan that we should imitate Western democracy one hundred per cent.

I am convinced that the Internal Security Act as practiced in Malaysia is not contrary to the fundamentals of democracy. Abuse of the Act can be prevented by vigilant public opinion via elections, a free Press and above all the Parliament." [Reference]

Shame on Ismail Abdul Rahman for his barbaric democracy comment; shame on Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, the 4th prime minister, for his 1987 Operasi Lalang arrestment on those termed racialism but was seen as a move to oppress his political opponents; and shame on Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the 5th prime minister who is stepping down in March 2009 due to the nationwide disapproval rate, for his signature on detaining the Hindu activists group leaders, who voiced against the government racist policies that resulted in Malaysian Indians being marginalized and sidelined from the country's development.

Criticism on ISA has never remained silent and the locals have become even more outrageous due to the recent arrestments of Raja Petra Kamarudin, a blogger of Malaysia Today; Tan Hoon Cheng, a journalist of a local newspaper; and Teresa Kok, a Parliament member. Tan was arrested however then released for the accusation of her report on a Malay racist remark that allegedly might incite hatred among Malay and Chinese. The home minister later uttered an irrelevant explanation that such arrestment was for the protection of Tan's security. The accusation on Kok for ordering a local mosque to reduce the loudspeakers volume during Muslims' call for prayer was lack of evidence. She had been released and recently filed a RM30 millions (US$ 8.8 millions) suit against a local newspaper for allegedly defaming her as an anti-Islam and anti-Malay. Raja Petra is still detained for his allegedly insultation on Muslims in an article entitled "I Promise to be a good, non-hypocritical Muslim". He is currently put on trial on a seditious charge for posting an article entitled 'Let's send the Altantuya murderers to hell', which reported the involvement of Najib Tun Razak, the current deputy prime minister, in the explosive murder of a Mongolia woman in Malaysia.

As we can see, the power has been abused by the one in power to "stifle legitimate opposition and silence lawful dissent" and to "repress lawful political opposition and democratic citizen activity". (Refer above to the comments of the ex-prime ministers regarding exercising the preventive detention power granted under the ISA.)

"Peaceful expression of political opinions is a fundamental right and critical to a democracy," a State Department official told AFP. "The United States believes that the Malaysian government should provide due process and treatment consistent with Malaysian law and international standards," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We expect that democratic countries that purport to advocate free expression of political views will not curtail such freedom," the official said following the trio's arrest. ("US summons Malaysian envoy over crackdown", AsiaOneNews, AsiaOneNews, Sept 12, 2008)

This law has been outrageous among Malaysians, not only because of it being a thorough violation of basic human rights of freedom of speech, but also a draconian law to arrest someone who indeed did not post any threat to the national security. Various ways had been taken to meet with the one in power to urge for the release of those in capture, but nothing was done. The idea was to propose that the detainees be put on trial, so actual judicial charges could be filed to investigate if the detainees indeed caused any harm to the national security.

The Law Minister, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim had recently resigned from the Cabinet with a letter expressing his concern that his views were always at odd with that of those in the administration. He condemned the exercise of ISA to arrest the journalist, the politician, and the blogger. Instead he insisted the power be used only against terrorists who posed a security threat.

Enough is enough!! Ppl, we need your help here!
Please click on the link below to join thousands of others for the petition to the prime minister on abolishing the ISA.
http://www.petitiononline.com/isa1234/petition.html

For further details on the reaction of the locals on the ISA, please see the videos below. There are also thousands of news out there talking about political disruption in Malaysia. A good resource:
www.malaysiakini.com.
Thank you for your attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XvY8tPmuIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St9B9s_5XLo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6TGdGrTKLw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmF7_9oYrfA

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Security_Act_of_Malaysia