Abolish the Internal Security Act in Malaysia!!!

1. The Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) and all other laws which provide for detention without trial are obnoxious and oppressive instruments of state maintained by the ruling government as instruments of control over our public life and civil society.

2. Similar laws like the ISA giving power to detain without trial were first enacted by our British colonisers to oppress, intimidated and control our people in their struggles during the earlier part of this century against British exploitation of our resources and in our fight for our independence. The British then detained thousands of nationalists fighters without trial and also executed some of them.

3. Laws such as the ISA which allow the government to use the police to detain a person indefinitely without trail would not have been tolerated by British citizens at home. But of course, a foreign and colonised population was another matter.

4. Internationally accepted human rights standards all recognise that one of the most important protections for individuals' liberty and personal protection is the right not to be detained or punished in any way without a fair and public trial. All the major religions which are practised in Malaysia recognise this very basic and fundamental right and condemn its violation. Any person with any sense of moral right will agree that detention without trial is an immoral and cruel practice. It means the severe punishment of detention is handed out without having to prove any offence. Since detention without trial means that there is no access to court or lawyers, frequently the detainee is subjected to mental and physical torture. For authoritarian leaders, detention without trial is very convenient for instilling fear and controlling a people.

5. Unfortunately, after our country's independence in 1957, our own leaders imitated their British predecessors, then recreated laws like the ISA in 1960 allowing them to detain a person indefinitely without trial. The ISA was then used to detain and abuse thousands of our people of all races, religions and walks of life in the last few decades. In the sixties, the labour movement and political opposition were attacked systematically using the ISA. In the seventies, besides trade unionists and political activists, leaders of the then active student movements were also attacked using this law.

6. The use of the ISA has continued through the eighties and nineties. We stand here today on the 10th anniversary of an infamous round of arrests of over a hundred Malaysians in "Operasi Lalang" crackdown which started on 27 October 1987. Those arrests included persons such as the Leader of the Opposition and a wide range of political, religious, social and environmental activists. No credible evidence of any wrong doing has ever been produced against those detained as with all other ISA detainees in the past. The detainees were simply the victims of the iron claws of politicians abusing power entrusted to them.

7. Malaysians stand here today to remember all physical, mental and other abuses inflicted on all the detainees in the past. Detainees have been kept in the past for long periods in solitary confinement without access to lawyers, family members or friends and subjected to physical and mental torture.

8. In Malaysia, our government has detained people without trial for continuous periods of up to sixteen years. Such detentions are a shame in our history akin to the injustices perpetrated by the apartheid regime in South Africa using an identical ISA against its own people.

9. Malaysians stand here to honour and remember every person who has been detained without trial as a victim of human rights violation. Not only is he or she made a victim, his or her family and loved ones are all made victims. And through fear - the main purpose of the ISA and other similar laws - our society is also made a victim.

10. Although it is the most infamous law, the ISA is unfortunately not the only law in Malaysia that allows the government to detain people without trail. In 1969, the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance 1969 was enacted followed by the Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures) Act in 1985. These laws have also been used to detain thousands of Malaysians without trial for alleged criminal offences. They violate the most basic of moral and human rights precepts - that no one should be punished without clear public proof in a court. Our criminal justice system is completely contradictory and discriminatory; we give alleged murderers and rapists a trial - but detain without compunction thousands of other without trial. Detention periods under these laws are also lengthy and punitive. The detentions are under the complete control of the police and the Ministry of Home Affairs. Since there is no public scrutiny of the detentions by the courts, one can expect much abuse to happen to the detainees and their families.

11.Malaysians stand collectively here today to demand that the Malaysian government rid our beloved country of the shame and injustice perpetrated by the existence and use of such laws. Not only must we remove these laws, we must also remove Article 149 of our Constitution which gives legitimacy to such obnoxious laws. Our moral exhortations to and condemnations of other countries in the world must be backed by consistent actions in our own country.

12. Malaysians ask our government to emulate what the South African nation has proudly accomplished very recently. The people of South Africa have repealed their previous apartheid constitution and have promulgated a new constitution based on equality with guarantees of freedom. Consistent with that, they have repealed completely in 1994 their identical ISA which was used regularly to detain their citizens.

Malaysians call upon the government to:
a) repeal the ISA and all other laws allowing for detention without trial;
b) release all detainees held under such laws or charge them in open court for any alleged offences.