Nabbed under ISA
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein today revealed that 10 people have been recently nabbed under the Internal Security Act for alleged terrorist links.
“All of them were involved terrorism and had a network with international terrorist organisations,” he said, but declined to elaborate.
Hishammuddin (right) said the government could not divulge more because of the severity of the alleged terrorist threat and the involvement of international agencies.
“But I can confirm 10 have been detained for terrorism and there is a international link to it. If we hadn’t acted quickly, it would have affected the security of our country,” he said.
He said most of those detained had only recently arrived in Malaysia and have yet to “establish themselves” here.
Hishammuddin added that “all 10 are involved in international terrorism” but would not reveal whether they had planned or carried out attacks. He also declined to say when and where they were arrested.
He would not say which intelligence organisations had helped in the arrests, but said that “if they are with an international terror organisation and if they are caught in Malaysia, then we will take action on them.”
Were there more arrests?
Hishammuddin said this during a press conference after being quizzed by reporters about a lawyer and NGO’s claim that up to 50 people were detained under the ISA last Friday.
Earlier, a prominent human rights lawyer and the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI) pressure group alleged that up to 50 individuals were nabbed since last week during an apparent counter-terrorism blitz.
Lawyer Edmund Bon (right) posted updates on his Facebook page that the 50 were detained last Thursday and taken to Bukit Aman federal police headquarters.
Bon claimed that 38 were released the following morning, while the rest are still under detention.
When contacted, Bon said he has spoken to some of those who have been released and is trying to gain access to remaining detainees.
Initial denial
Initially, Home Ministry chief-secretary Mahmood Adam denied Bon’s allegation.
“If there are any ISA arrests, it would have to come through the Home Ministry and we have not received any such detention orders,” he said, when met in Putrajaya.
Mahmood (left) said the police routinely apprehend criminals and was unaware how Bon’s figure of 50 detainees came about.
“In the case of the attacks on places of worship, only 19 people have been remanded and (even then) it is not an ISA issue,” he added.
In recent months, the government have been trying to soften its position on the ISA, which has been widely criticised because it allows indefinite detention without trial.
Other than pledging to amend the law in the next sitting of Parliament, the government has also released a large number of detainees over the past few months.
Government officials said there were now 25 people, including the 10 new detainees, being held under the ISA. Detainees are typically held at the Kamunting detention centre in Taiping, Perak.
Anti-ISA group slams arrests
Rights activists condemned the new detentions and said that suspected militants should face the normal justice system.
“We oppose the new arrests. We are against detention without trial and the use of ISA on these 10 individuals. We want the government to charge or release them,” Abolish ISA Movement coordinator E Nalini told AFP.
“If the government has evidence that they pose a threat to national security, please bring them to court and put them through an open trial, don’t use ISA on Malaysian citizen or any other individuals.”
In September last year, five alleged Jemaah Islamiah members were released from ISA detention. The government said they had been rehabilitated after spending between two and seven years behind bars without trial.
ISA: ‘I Say Abolish!’
On this 22nd anniversary of Operation Lalang and with the Barisan Nasional government at its most defensive over the continued use of this indefensible suppression apparatus – the Internal Security Act – we would do well to ensure there is no compromise on the call by civil society for its total abolition.
Whenever the BN government has run out of justifications for its continued use of the ISA, it has sounded out its intentions to “review” this vile piece of legislation.
Thus, after the Communist Party of Malaya had signed the peace treaty with the Malaysian government in 1989, the then Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghafar Baba announced the intention for “ISA to be reviewed” (The Star, 1.12.89).
Again in 1996, after the concerted campaign by SUARAM society, the BN government announced that “the ISA would be amended to reduce the mandatory term of two years to maybe six months.” (The Sun, 16.2.96)
In the current session of Parliament, we understand the government is attempting to introduce a bill to amend the ISA instead of abolishing it altogether in view of the indefensible record of the ISA since its enactment in 1960.
This law has been a too convenient a tool for the Barisan Nasional and its predecessor, the Alliance to put away opposition leaders and other dissidents, allowing the Special Branch to torture detainees with impunity all these years.
Incongruent with society
Anything short of abolition to outlaw detention without trial will not be congruent with “a society at peace with itself”, those fluffy words in “Wawasan 2020″. We base our case on the following:
1. There is no emergency situation
Although we know that none of the four Emergencies declared since Independence has been annulled, the fact remains that ever since the end of The Emergency in 1960, we have not faced any emergency situation “threatening the life of the nation”.
The only crisis faced by the BN Government seems to be the possibility of losing control of the federal government after the severe drenching by the rakyat during the political tsunami of 2008.
It is perhaps the biggest scandal of post-Independence Malaysia that we have allowed one of the most draconian legislations in the world to be used for nearly fifty years during peace time.
It is ironic that the butcher of the Emergency, Gerald Templar had suggested the Emergency regulations be annually renewable or they should lapse automatically.
And even during the worst days of Apartheid, Nelson Mandela was allowed due process of the law; there was judicial review in South Africa all that time.
Then again, during the troubles in Northern Ireland in the seventies, the British government’s detention of IRA suspects for seven days was ruled unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights.
Here we have had to endure the ISA that allows sixty days of solitary confinement when the detainee is at the mercy of the Special Branch with a renewable two-year detention orders.
An ISA detainee just released had been detained for eight years. Another released in 1987 had been detained for 16 years!
2. No justification for interim measure of review
In a moment of political gaucherie, Suhakam in its 2003 “Review of the Internal Security Act” suggested interim recommendations “in light of the possibility that the enactment of such a comprehensive legislation will take time…”
Interim measures needed
We know that the Attorney General’s office works in mysterious ways; they can be quicksilver swift when it comes to laws the government wants to introduce quickly, yet painstakingly slow when it comes to legislation that does not fit their agenda.
For now, we do not expect the government to reinvent the wheel.
There exists in many countries today comprehensive legislation to deal with terrorism – the US, UK, Spain, Turkey.
All the government needs to look out for are the bits in their legislations that do not meet international human rights standards.
We are gratified, for example, to read the reformed former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir’s recent denunciation of US treatment of their detainees.
The government can take the cue from Dr Mahathir and improve on any new comprehensive anti-terrorism legislation.
Suhakam has suggested various interim measures including reducing the two-year mandatory detention orders to three months.
We believe such amendments will only serve to prolong the injustice of detention without trial and simply allow the BN government to use the ISA in its new form.
3. Anti-Terrorism Laws in US and UK
Since September 11th 2001, the BN government has tried to justify the continued use of the ISA by pointing to anti-terrorism laws in the West, especially the US and the UK.
First of all, we should note that while these countries have experienced cases of terrorist bombings, Malaysia has not suffered any such incidents.
Still, these countries have not declared emergencies in the aftermath of the bombings.
Secondly, the US Patriot Act is only targeted at non-citizens. While it also introduced measures that erode the civil liberties of US citizens, detention without trial would certainly not be accepted by US voters.
‘Not charged in open court’
In the UK, the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Subversion Act of 2001 was also targeted only at foreigners.
After it was rendered unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights, the UK Government replaced it with the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005.
Under this law, suspects are placed under “control orders” (more like house arrest) rather than detention orders.
And while ISA detainees are held for up to sixty days in solitary confinement, the limit on holding is 28 days in the UK, 2 days in the US, 5 days in Spain and 7 ½ days in Turkey.
4. ISA is punitive, not preventive
It speaks volumes that Noordin Mat Top the Malaysian who was alleged to be responsible for the Bali bombing and killed recently by the Indonesian authorities had never been arrested under the ISA.
At the same time, out of the 10,000 plus Malaysians who have been detained under the ISA since 1960, how many have been subsequently charged in an open court of law? We don’t recall any.
This simple fact shows that the ISA has been used all along as a convenient yet insidious suppression apparatus of the BN government.
As a former ISA detainee and having undergone harrowing sessions with the Special Branch, it was clear that our detention under Operation Lalang was purely punitive and a deterrent to further involvement in social and political activism.
It could not have been preventive and I could not have been “rehabilitated” after 445 days of detention for the simple reason that I have spoken up and written more than I did twenty years ago.
Licence to torture
The whole notion of ISA detention being “rehabilitation” of the detainee is complete fantasy. You either come out of Kamunting Detention Camp broken or you come out more together, more determined to put an end to injustice and exploitation.
5. Ratify the Convention Against Torture
The current Parliament should instead be looking at the question of abuse of powers by the police and other enforcement officers especially after the demise of Teoh Beng Hock.
Suaram’s 2007 Human Rights Report documents two cases of deaths during interrogation by the MAAC.
So Teoh’s case is by no means unusual.
When so many cases of torture of ISA detainees by the police have been exposed and the latter still gets away with impunity, we can say the ISA gives the police a licence to torture.
The prime minister should prove his credibility as a reformer by implementing the most important of the recommendations by the Royal Commission on the Police, namely establishing the Independent Police Complaints Misconduct Committee.
More than that, his government should ratify the Convention against Torture to ensure that there is accountability and transparency in Malaysian law enforcement.
Without doubt, the ISA has been the most loathed law in Malaysia for nearly fifty years. The government would be misjudging the peoples’ patience by amending it to another form.
“I Say Abolish” the ISA simply because detention without trial diminishes the rights of all citizens by giving the state powers that cannot be reviewed by the courts and corrupting standards central to the administration of justice.
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KUA KIA SOONG is the director of human rights movement Suaram. He was detained under ISA in 1987 and wrote about his experience in ’445 Days Behind the Wire’.
ORDEAL OVER BUT ISA LURKS FOR NEXT VICTIM
For more than seven years, her husband had to be confined to an empty and dark room. And for those 2,670 nights, he had missed the absence of the stars in the sky.
Speaking at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today, Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Mat Sah Mohd Satray’s wife Norlaila Othman said, “this showed how draconian the Act is as it imprisoned my husband through those long and lonely nights for seven whole years”.
“Also, when he first got home, he saw that our only son (Suhaib Mat Sah) has grown. He felt as if it happened so suddenly because the last time he met him, our son was only 8 years old.
“But I told him, ‘no it is not suddenly’, you have been gone for seven years. And this made him cry”, said 44-year-old Norlaila, holding back her tears.
Mat Sah, who was held for seven years and five months were among five detainees released, last Tuesday, with conditions by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.
He was put under the security act for being allegedly involved with the Muslim terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiah.
Norlaila, who appeared calm and composed, said that her husband had been waiting to be released each time Hari Raya was around the corner but it never materialised, until this year.
She, however, regretted for not welcoming Mat Sah home for the first time in seven years as she was away in Sandakan, Sabah on that fateful day.
“I never expected that he would be released last Tuesday. If I knew, I would not have gone to Sabah. I would be at home, all beautifully dressed up and smelling nice with my finest perfume, waiting for him in front of the house”, she said with a smile.
Don’t say thanks to the government
Upon his release last Tuesday, Norlaila said the mainstream press had descended in front of her house to interview her husband. She had no problems with it, except for one thing.
“I told him not to say thanks to the government because I can still feel the pain raising my child for seven years on my own and how I struggled telling everyone that he had been detained without trial.
“Don’t say thanks to the government. Thanking Allah is good enough”, said Norlaila, adding that the press had asked him to ‘act happy’ in front of the camera.
“For me they wanted to show that my husband is thanking the government for releasing him before Hari Raya”, said Norlaila, who is an active committee member of the Abolish ISA movement (GMI) since her husband’s detention.
“And I think it is wrong for the home minister to say he was released because my husband had repented. I believe he was freed because of the pressure from the people”, she said, referring to the Aug 1 anti-ISA mammoth rally.
Now that Mat Sah has been released this will not stop Norlaila, who is a teacher, from continuing her involvement in the movement.
“My contract with GMI will expire this December and since he has no job, I would have to support the family. But my schedule will change when I go back to teaching next year”, she said while admitting that it is however more important to readjust her family’s life.
“It is quite different now that he is back. I’m so not used to having a man in the house. It feels like he is a stranger”, said Norlaila, with a laugh.
Will take legal action against government
Based on advice from her lawyers, Norlaila said that she would initiate legal action against the government for her husband’s ‘unlawful detention’.
“We would also do something about the restrictions imposed on Mat Sah because it affects us as a family”, she said, explaining that her husband is now put under the Restricted Residence Act.
“Whenever he wants to get out of our residence (Ulu Klang)’s area, he needs to report to the police. This restricts his freedom as he can’t also find a job.
“People say he is free, but his movement is restricted. I think I feel more stressed now than before”, she said.
The conditions imposed on Mat Sah amongst others, revealed Norlaila, include being at home from 9pm to 6am, cannot be actively involved in politics, disbarred from campaigning in an election and cannot get out of the district.
He is also required to report to the nearest police station every week.
GMI will keep fighting for ISA repeal
Although five have been released from ISA nine other detainees still remain in detention. GMI president Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, said the movement’s struggle will not end here.
“We feel very happy now that our fight against the ISA has resulted in this achievement. But we will not stop fighting until the ISA is totally repealed”, said Syed Noh at the same press conference.
“Besides a huge impact on the detainees would include having to rebuild their lives and clear their names. For GMI, we have not finished our struggle”, he added.
For two-time former ISA detainee, Saari Sungib, he feels that Norlaila needs a lot of adjustments in her life now that her husband is back in her arms.
“Your life has drastically changed, and focusing on your family is more important. I had a hard time getting back on my feet after I was freed from the ISA”, said the Ulu Klang state representative.
The press conference was also attended by GMI secretary E Nalini, human rights lawyer Edmund Bon and PKR national leadership council member Animah Ferrer.
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