Memorandum Demanding the Abolition of the Internal Security Act 1960
We, the undersigned civil society organizations and political parties, express grave concern over the Government's use of the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) to arrest blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin,
Sin Chew Daily senior journalist Tan Hoon Cheng, DAP parliamentarian and Selangor senior state executive councilor Teresa Kok.
For the past 48 years, the ISA has been crippling the
fundamental freedoms and rights of Malaysians. More than 10,000 citizens have been deprived of their liberty and have been mentally and physically tortured under the ISA. The ISA has created an atmosphere of terror that
curtails the participation of citizens in the public affairs of the country and impairs democracy. This is intolerable in any open society.
By empowering the police and the Home Minister to make arbitrary decisions ordering detentions without trial without sufficient safeguards in the form of judicial review, the ISA gravely violates
fundamental human rights and must be abolished.
Therefore, we call on the Government to:
1. Abolish the Internal Security Act 1960
In any country that upholds the rule of law, the personal freedom of any person can only be deprived under open trials in courts of law. In the spirit of upholding the rule of law, the Government should table a bill to repeal the ISA in the next Parliamentary session.
2. Release all ISA detainees or charge them in
court
The Government should immediately and unconditionally release all ISA detainees or charge them in court to afford them every opportunity to defend themselves, in line with the principle that "Everyone is innocent until proven guilty".
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