What about ISA?
Recently we have bounced to lots of news about Internal Security Act, ‘ISA’. I bet you, majority of us do not know what ISA is about. Not an issue, because we will start to learn what it’s about.
The Internal Security Act 1960 (Malay: Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri) is a preventive detention law in force in Malaysia. The legislation was enacted by Malaysian politicians after the country gained independence from Britain in 1957. In brief, it allows for the arrest of any person without the need for trial in certain defined circumstances. Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world whose Constitution allows for preventive detention during peacetime without safeguards that elsewhere are understood to be basic requirements for protecting fundamental human rights.
“Any police officer may without warrant arrest and detain pending enquiries any person in respect of whom he has reason to believe that there are grounds which would justify his detention under section 8; and that he has acted or is about to act or is likely to act in any manner prejudicial to the security of Malaysia or any part thereof or to maintenance of essential services therein or to the economic life thereof.”
Any person may be detained by the police for up to 60 days without trial for an act which allegedly threatens the security of the country or any part thereof. After 60 days, one may be further detained for a period of two years each, to be approved by the Minister of Home Affairs, thus permitting indefinite detention without trial. In 1989, the powers of the Minister under the legislation was made immune to judicial review by virtue of amendments to the Act, only allowing the courts to examine and review technical matters pertaining to the ISA arrest.
What happened on 01 Aug, 2009? It was a gathering event of Anti-ISA and Pro-ISA among few places in Kuala Lumpur such as Sogo, Masjid Jamek and Masjid Negara. And that’s why thousand of peoples trapped in traffic jam. Reports say that there were about 15,000 to 20,000 of them made into this event.
For more information about the event, catch up @ Malaysia Kini by clicking here.
Meanwhile, we will get to know some of the ex-ISA detainees:
1) Tan Hoon Cheng
2) Raja Petra Kamarudin
3) Some others – ethnic Indians
