KUALA LUMPUR: A delegation from Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI) and the Malaysian Bar Human Rights Committee today presented a joint memorandum on the abolition of the Internal Security Act 1960 and all other preventive detention laws to the Leader of the Opposition, Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah (PR-Permatang Pauh).At a press conference held at the lobby of Parliament this afternoon, GMI chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh Alhabshi explained this latest campaign spearheaded by GMI in the light of the upcoming 6th anniversary of detention of many of the ISA detainees. However GMI’s call was for the release of all ISA detainees, numbering 70, regardless of duration of detention. HRC co-deputy chairperson Amer Hamzah Arshad read out the joint memorandum.
The full text of the joint memorandum appears below. Amer also called for the Minister for Home Affairs to actually visit the Kamunting Detention Centre and other places of detention and meet the detainees and see first-hand the conditions of their detention. He urged the Minister not simply to sign detention orders from the comfort of his office. Amer, in a subsequent response to a question from a journalist, decried attempts to favourably compare Kamunting as against Guantanamo Bay. He instead called for Malaysia to compare itself with countries where there was no preventive detention without trial.
Three relatives of ISA detainees also spoke of their experiences. Puan Norlaila Othman (wife of Mat Sah bin Mohammed Satray) spoke of the privations her husband had to endure as a result of her efforts to free him, including solitary confinement. She referred to the emotional blackmail that special branch officers engaged in, seeking to discourage her from visiting her husband with the threat of prolonging his detention if she insisted on doing so, or if she insisted on speaking to the press. She bravely, and regardless of the consequences for her husband, called on the press to report fully on the ISA detainees and to honestly draw the nation’s attention to their plight. Puan Pushpaneela (wife of M. Manoharan), and V. Raidu (brother of V. Ganabatirau) recounted the pain, suffering and sense of loss their families had to endure in the last 4 months, as well as the lack of proper medical attention for detainees.
Charles Santiago (PR-Klang) spoke of his recent trip to Europe during which he had had the opportunity to speak to members of the European Parliament and the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Finnish Parliament about Malaysia’s continued use of the ISA and other preventive detention laws. He reported that the members of the European Parliament with whom he spoke had agreed to bring the matter up to their respective governments and with the European Union in order for this issue to be addressed in the context of the EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. The Free Trade Agreement includes provisions calling for mutual respect of human rights.
Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah, in her remarks, said that she too understood the suffering that the detainees’ families had to endure. She recounted instances when she had made the journey to Kamunting Detention Centre to visit her husband Dato’ Seri Anwar only to be denied permission to do so when she arrived. She pointed out that some detainees were now being held for close to 8 years. She too called on the Minister for Home Affairs to look into the conditions of detainees, and said that she would continue to work with her colleagues in the Opposition to persuade the Government to abolish the ISA. She pointed out that Malaysians surely did not want to endorse or be a party to such cruel legislation. She then launched the “Malaysia Bebas Dari ISA” badge as part of the campaign.
At the end of the press conference the Leader of the Opposition then proceeded to distribute the badges to fellow members of Parliament in and around the lobby of Parliament. Some gladly received them and allowed badges to be pinned on them, while others merely received the badges and left it on the table or put it in their pockets.
No comments:
Post a Comment