Wan Azizah: Repeal the Internal Security Act

Posted on April 30, 2008
Filed Under ISA |

Meanwhile, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR-Permatang Pauh) in her maiden speech as opposition leader called for the Internal Security Act (ISA) to be repealed.

black 14 questioning 160408 wan azizah”I would like to begin my official duty as opposition leader in this House by asking the government to release all the ISA detainees immediately without any condition or charge them in open court,” she said while debating on the royal address.

According to her, the ISA - which was enacted in 1960 to combat the communist insurgency - has been used to detain 10,711 people without trial so far.

At present, there are 70 people being held at the Kamunting detention camp in Taiping, Perak

Wan Azizah also called for the closure of the detention camp.

At one juncture, Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) - who said he was an ex-ISA detainee - interjected and said the ISA is still important.

This irked another ex-ISA detainee MP N Gobalakrishnan (PKR-Padang Serai).

“Since he agreed with the ISA, it is equivalent to admitting that he has done something wrong, he is not qualified to sit in this House as a MP,” thundered the opposition MP.

Full Malaysiakini story here.

I am glad that someone, in the form of Wan Azizah, has the guts to bring up the subject of the repeal of the ISA. Like I have mentioned before, the ISA has outlived its purposes, and it is time that those still under detention be charged for crimes or be released.

I find it disgraceful that someone like Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, an elected MP, who himself was unjustly detained would continue to think that the ISA is still relevant. Indeed, N Gobalakrishnan is right when he called Tajuddin not qualified to sit in Parliament for supporting such a draconian law as the ISA when he himself had been on the receiving end of such injustice.

It is shameful that the country has five people that have been detained without being charged for any crime for eight years! Is there no law that these people can be charged with if they have truly broken the law?

Pak Lah will go a long way in rehabilitating his image as a weak leader if he releases these people who were detained during Dr M’s administration. Pak Lah should do the right thing and release all ISA detainees still held in Kamunting.

I hope Wan Azizah continues to bring up the subject of the repeal every opportunity she gets in parliament. The law has no place in present day Malaysia.

Here’s a video of Dr Wan Azizah’s press conference calling for the repeal of the ISA.

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