MALAYSIA: Internal Security Act subverts due process

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM 

AHRC UA Index: 000802 2 August 2000 
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UA 29/00: Freedom of expression denied 

MALAYSIA: Internal Security Act subverts due process 
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We forward here two statements made by the reputed Malaysian organisation Aliran on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the infamous Internal Security Act (ISA) of Malaysia. 

We urge you to write to the Malaysian authorities for the abolition of the ISA as well as the release of those arrested and detained under the Act. Below the two statements is a sample letter and the addresses of those to whom your letter should be addressed. 

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STATEMENT 1 

Aliran Media Statement on the 40th anniversary of the Internal Security Act (1 August 2000) 
http://www.malaysia.net/aliran/ 
http://www.aliran.com/ 

Abolish the ISA! 

The Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 must go. 

The ISA is a notoriously oppressive law. In the name of national security the ISA allows for indefinite detention without trial. The ISA is not only obnoxious, it is a legal anachronism that has no place in a democracy, an era of globalisation, or the new millennium. 

Former detainees who have published accounts of their detention under the ISA have invariably related horrifying experiences. Detainees have been subjected to solitary confinement without access to family members, lawyers and friends. Further, police interrogators have routinely subjected ISA detainees to physical and mental torture in order to ‘neutralize’ them, or ‘turn them over’, or extract information to incriminate the detainees themselves or other people. 

Much of this was already known before the abusive and humiliating treatment meted out by the Special Branch police and gaolers was dramatically exposed when senior police officers testified during the trial of former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in 1999. 

All this amounts to no less than a barbaric treatment of individuals who have never been tried, let alone convicted, in an open court. These practices, which have robbed thousands of Malaysians of their rights, liberties, and in many cases the best years of their lives, are an obscene affront to human dignity and a mockery of democracy. They violate the spiritual traditions and teachings of all the religions practised in Malaysia. 

The ISA is law. But the ISA’s provisions and use, as well as the practices that it condones, represent a crime against humanity. 

The British colonial government introduced the ISA at the beginning of the Emergency in 1948. The Emergency was officially declared to be over in 1960. However, all successive governments of independent Malaysia have retained the ISA. 

Today, 40 years after the end of the Emergency, this obnoxious law has been so amended that it has become even more obnoxious than its original version. Presently, the ISA does not even permit judicial review of the power of the Minister of Home Affairs in ordering detention without trial. 

For 43 years since Merdeka, the Alliance, followed by the Barisan Nasional governments have habitually used the ISA to protect themselves from the challenges posed by legitimate political 
opposition, trade unionists and other critics. Thousands of Malaysians of all races and religions, who were never convicted of any crime, have fallen victims to the ISA. Their only ‘crime’ was to pose an unproven ‘threat to national security’. 

As always, the ‘threat to national security’ has been exclusively determined by the powers that be. Under the ISA, the ‘threat to national security’ has been a catch-all excuse for not charging and trying so-called suspects in open courts. 

Indeed the ISA has been systematically used as a tool to silence political dissent and opposition. 

During the 1960s, the ISA was frequently used against the labour movement and lawful political opposition. In the 1970s, student leaders were added to the ISA’s expanding list of victims. 

In the most extensive use of the ISA in a single instance — in the infamous Operasi Lalang of 27 October 1987 — Mahathir’s government employed the ISA to detain 106 Malaysians, including opposition leaders, social activists, environmentalists, educationists, religious workers and academicians. 

The use of the ISA continued into the 1990s. In 1994 several Al Arqam leaders accused of ‘deviant Islamic teachings’ were detained under the ISA. In November 1997 ten people variously suspected of being Shi’ite followers, militants, or anti-monarchists were likewise detained. 

In 1998, several of Anwar Ibrahim’s key supporters who protested against Anwar’s detention and participated in peaceful Reformasi demonstrations were also detained under the ISA. 

And now, in July 2000, the government has once again resorted to the ISA to detain members of the Al Ma’unah group. 

All through these 43 years after Merdeka, the ISA has also claimed as its victims all kinds of people ranging from suspected secret society members to those suspected of being involved in the forgery and sale of identity cards and passports. 

All through more than a half century of the ISA’s use, no credible evidence has even been produced in court to prove any detainee’s ‘guilt beyond reasonable doubt’. No opportunity has been provided to any detainee to prove his or her innocence. 

Yet thousands of detainees have been jailed, separated from their loved ones, and, in some cases practically ‘forgotten’ as they languished in prisons and detention camps for years upon years. 

Perversely ISA is evidence of the government’s contempt for Wawasan 2020 which aims to ‘foster and develop a mature democratic society, practising a form of mature consensual, community-oriented Malaysian democracy that can be a model for many developing countries’. 

How can ISA foster a ‘democratic society’ when this pernicious law looms as an ever-present threat over the lives and liberty of ordinary citizens? How does democracy ‘mature’ when people are threatened with detention on untried and unproven allegations? What sort of a ‘model’ can a Malaysian government — which imprisons its citizens at will — offer to other countries? 

Today, 1 August 2000, marks the 40th anniversary of the ISA. On this occasion, which marks 40 years of terrible injustice, Aliran reiterates our call: ABOLISH THE ISA! 

The laws of this country amply provide for trying people in an open court where they have a fair opportunity to defend themselves. 

This basic principle of the rule of law must be unconditionally upheld. 

Aliran abhors all manner of violence in the resolution of social and political conflicts. But we regret that the 40th anniversary of the ISA has been marked by the use of the ISA and arbitrary detention against the leaders and members of Al Ma’unah who are suspects in the
recent arms heist and the killings related to it. 

No matter what grave crimes the Al Ma’unah leaders and members are alleged to have committed, they must be accorded their constitutional right to defend themselves against any and all allegations in a fair and open trial. 

No justice can prevail if they are prematurely ‘convicted’ and subjected to the unjust and horrific treatment that has been the experience of too many ISA detainees. 

Aliran calls upon the government immediately to charge and try all ISA detainees in an open court — or to release them. 

This being the year of the establishment of Suhakam, the National Human Rights Commission, as well, Aliran calls upon Suhakam to investigate without delay all human rights violations committed under the ISA, and to join other Malaysian organisations to ABOLISH THE ISA. 

Aliran Executive Committee 
1 August 2000 

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STATEMENT 2 

More detentions to mark the 40th anniversary of ISA 

Aliran regrets that the authorities have chosen to mark the 40th anniversary of the Internal Security Act by deciding to place the 27 members of the Al-Ma’unah movement who allegedly took part in the recent Sauk arms heist under ISA detention. 

Such a move means that the detained individuals will be deprived of their democratic right to be tried in a court of law. If they had been charged in court, the government would have had a golden opportunity to tell the whole world that it had nothing to hide over the Al-Ma’unah incident. After all, we’ve been told that the government has all the evidence it needs to prove their guilt. 

Equally important, an open trial would have been seen as just and it would have provided an opportunity for concerned Malaysians to try to understand the factors that have led to the formation of such cults. 

We call upon the government to release all Al-Ma’unah members from ISA detention. By detaining them under the Act, the government is only fuelling suspicion that it is only interested in justifying the existence of this colonial relic of a law. What a way to mark the 40th anniversary of this obnoxious law! 

Aliran Executive Committee 
1 August 2000 
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