KUALA LUMPUR: Preventive detention was first implemented in old Malaya in 1948 to combat the insurgency of the Malayan Communist Party.
Historian Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim said the Emergency Regulations Ordinance was enacted by the British colonial administration during the Malayan Emergency.
"This was in response to an incident where two European plantation managers were killed in Sungai Siput, Perak. Later, the law was enacted nationwide.
"The police were then given the power to imprison communists and those suspected of assisting them without trial," he said.
Khoo explained that the Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between the Commonwealth armed forces and the military arm of the the Malayan Communist Party from 1948 to 1960.
Khoo said that the ordinance targeted acts of violence and allowed the detention of a person for a period not exceeding one year.
"When the Malayan Emergency ended in 1960, the Emergency Regulation Ordinance was terminated, and the newly independent Malaysia passed the Internal Security Act (ISA) under the authority granted by Article 149 of the constitution.
"It was based closely on the British law, to prevent any future communist agitation," he said.
The law was drafted by Hugh Hickling, who was then the legal draftsman at the Attorney- General's chambers in the 1950's during Tun Abdul Razak's tenure as home minister.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the abolishment of the ISA in his special message in conjunction with the National Day and Malaysia Day.
He announced that two new laws will be introduced instead to safeguard national security.
Khoo said the announcement was timely and that the new laws introduced should comply with the Federal constitution and international human rights standards.
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