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KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 (Bernama) -- The Bar Council is to convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Sept 20 at Wisma MCA to discuss yesterday's detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) of blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, Seputeh Member of Parliament Teresa Kok and Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng.

Its president, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, said today the meeting would also discuss the government's issue of show-cause letters to three newspapers -- The Sun, Sin Chew Daily and Suara Keadilan -- over reports they had purportedly carried contrary to guidelines.

She said the Bar Council has set up a legal team comprising 25 state bar chairs and state representatives around Malaysia, headed by council member Rajpal Singh, to be on hand to assist in providing legal aid to the detainees.

"For the moment, our immediate response is to aid people in detention. That is our first priority. Then, after the meeting on Saturday, if there is any plan or suggestion we will look into that," she told a news conference at the Bar Council premises, here.

She said the use of the ISA had created far more uneasiness and unhappiness amongst right-thinking people in Malaysia.

"We have sufficient provisions in the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code that allow for police investigation in these instances, such as sections 504 and 505 of the Penal Code.

"We have said it before and we will say it again. If there are perceived offences, charge these people and give them their fundamental right to defend themselves. Why are we afraid of giving them the right to defend themselves, we can't understand it?" she said.

Ambiga said Malaysia sits on the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council and the government made pledges, including upholding the promotion and protection of all human rights in order to be elected to this council in 2006.

"As a member of the council, it is incumbent upon the government to uphold these pledges. The use of preventive detention laws like the ISA runs counter to those pledges," she said.

At the same news conference, Bar Council past president Sulaiman Abdullah said the use of the ISA is similar to using the nuclear bomb.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president Datuk Liew Vui Keong said there were sufficient grounds for the government to use the ISA on Raja Petra, Kok and Tan.

Liew, who is Deputy International Trade and Industry Ministry, said he was shocked when he heard the news of the detentions last night but after being briefed on the reasons for the detention and listening to a statement from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that the government would not take such action without reason, he understood why the action was taken.

"I believe in this particular case there are sufficient reasons for the government to act," he told reporters after officiating the 2008 Zhanjiang-Malaysia Trade & Economic Co-operation Seminar here.

He said the government decided to take action against those who stirred up sensitive issues.

"We all have to be calm and not listen to any of the rumours that have been spreading via the SMS (Short Messaging Service)," he said.

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