©The
Star (Used by permission)
by Zulkifli Abd Rahman
KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council will hold an emergency Extraordinary General
Meeting (EGM) on Sept 20 to discuss what it called a serious national crisis
regarding the arrests of three people under the Internal Security Act (ISA) on
Friday.
The meeting, which would be held at Wisma MCA at 10am, would discuss the
violation of the rule of law, Bar Council chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan
said.
She added the Council had set up a legal team, headed by council member Rajpal
Singh with about 25 state bar chairmen and representatives, to provide legal aid
to the detainees and anyone else who might be arrested later.
Ambiga said the ISA was not a solution to any perceived threat to peace, adding
that the three people were arrested in connection to matters that were already
in the public domain.
She added that the use of the ISA, far from relieving any perceived tension, had
instead created far more uneasiness and unhappiness among right–thinking people
in Malaysia.
“We have sufficient provisions in the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code
that allow for police investigations in these instances.
“If there are perceived offences, charge these people in open court and give
them their fundamental right to defend themselves. Our nation and our people
don’t deserve the ISA,” she told reporters Saturday at the Bar Council
headquarters after chairing a meeting on the issue.
Ambiga was commenting on the arrest of Malaysia Today news portal editor
Raja Petra Kamaruddin, Selangor senior executive councillor Teresa Kok and
Sin Chew Daily News reporter Tan Hoon Cheng on Friday under Section 73(1) of
the ISA.
She also appealed to the Home Ministry to withdraw the show–cause letters issued
to Sin Chew Daily, The Sun and Suara Keadilan for breaching guidelines set by
the Government.
To a question, Ambiga said she was not aware of any news whether any of the Bar
Council’s members may be detained under the ISA later.
Immediate past Bar president Yeoh Yang Poh said it was sad to learn that the
Government deemed it necessary to deprive the people of their freedom without
going through the due process of law after 50 years of nation building.
Hendon Mohamed, past president of the Bar Council, said she was shocked that the
ISA was still used for purposes of convenience, and urged the Government to
consider allowing itself to become more open and let the people speak up.
Another past Bar president Sulaiman Abdullah said the country was not facing a
major crisis, yet a law that was supposed to overcome a major crisis was being
used.
“If the Government insists in continuing to use the ISA, the Act should be used
with safeguards written into it, such as that any executive action on the ISA
must be subject to judicial scrutiny,” he added.
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Bar Council to have EGM on ISA
13 Sep 2008 12:00 am