[Malaysia] More ISA Detainees Last Year

Suhakam: ISA detentions increased last year
Beh Lih Yi, Malaysiakini
Jun 20, 2005

If the government was restrained in using the Internal Security Act (ISA) in 2003, the reins were loosened last year, revealed the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam). In its 2004 annual report, tabled in Parliament today after a delay, the commission said the security law had been invoked regularly last year.

As at Dec 15 last year, a total of 113 people were held under the ISA, compared to 97 the previous year (up to Dec 31, 2003). The majority were held over terrorism-linked allegations.

"In addition, there were new cases of persons being detained under the ISA on suspicion of forging documents," stated the 334-page report.

"These cases appear to fall within the ambit of the cases that could be administered under the normal penal system and not using extraordinary prevention detention powers of the ISA."

Furthermore, Suhakam said 36 detention orders were renewed and only three detainees were released last year.

"These developments are thus in contrast with the apparent greater restraint in the use of the ISA that was noted by Suhakam in 2003," it added.

The ISA allows for detention without trial and detention orders can be renewed by the authorities every two years.

Amendments to ISA

The Suhakam report also recorded the ISA detention of five Malaysian students studying in Pakistan, and the transfer of eight detainees from the Kamunting Detention Camp to a Police Remand Centre to allegedly "brainwash" them.

On a positive note, Suhakam said the government reiterated last September that intermittent amendments would be made to the ISA to make it "friendlier" and more "transparent".

"It is hoped that the amendments will take into account the interim recommendations made by Suhakam in its "Review of the ISA" report that will come to fruition soon," it added.

In the report, Suhakam had called for the repeal of the ISA and the enactment of a new comprehensive law that must spell out the specific offences related to threats to national security.

Meanwhile, its 2004 report also noted the unprecedented ISA debate between Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz and parliamentary Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang as a positive move, except that it was marred by the organiser's difficulty in obtaining a police permit.

The commission reiterated that detention without trial is an "extreme form of detention" that denies a person the rights to personal liberty, a fair and public trial and to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The ISA was crafted to deal with the communist insurgency but later earned notoriety when it was used to clamp down on political dissent.