ISA: MCA should stand for justice

If the press reports were true, I'm very disappointed with MCA, even though I do not support the party. By only helping to secure the release of reporter Tan Hoon Cheng and not raising anything on Teresa Kok and Raja Petra Kamaruddin's ISA detention, MCA has shown that it is not capable to standing up for justice for all Malaysians. It certainly will not earn them brownie points from most of the rakyat. Teresa Kok is clearly innocent from all the information we could gather from press, Internet, etc. It is the usual culprit - Utusan Malaysia that is inciting racial tension and seem to get away with it over and over again. RPK's case may be more complicated, but Malaysia has its own legal system and we should use our own legal system to determine his fate rather than resorting to an unreasonable detention, unless the government is worried about him revealing all their skeletons in the closet.

The original ISA is never meant for cases like this. If it's used against terrorists or communists, then it could be justified as they may pose immediate threat to the country and we can't afford to wait for legal judgements to be made.

Whatever lame excuses Syed Hamid Albar is using to defend the government - blaming the police for the detention, claiming the reporter incited racial tension, majority of rakyat is mature enough to see through all the lies and deceit. Instructions to use ISA needs to come from above and is not within the police's powers. The lame excuses only makes the government and Malaysia looks extremely and increasingly stupid in the eyes of the world.

As for stoking racial tension, I can only see Ahmad Ismail and Khir Toyo doing it. UMNO is only trying to scare honest people into reporting their misdeeds. What a shame!

Q&A with Syed Hamid Albar
(don't know whether to laugh or cry)

Q: Is Ahmad Ismail above the law?

A: He has been punished so far as the party as concerned. At the same time there is a report against Ahmad Ismail and we are investigating it. I don’t think we treat politicians differently. We have taken action. That politician has been suspended three years by the party. He lose all his position. At the same time there is a report of sedition.

Why arrest the reporter when you can call her up for questioning?

Whatever action that we take, there will be questions asked. The whole thing was started by her, it is best that we talk to her. If she is a threat, she would be brought in under Section 73 for 60 days. She would be held. When we have questioned her and we are satisfied with her answers, we just release her. I don’t think we are being unfair nor have we mistreated her.

What do you mean by ‘she started the whole thing’?

If you are going to analyse (what I say), I’d be appearing before a defence counsel. Let me say that the (news) report was made by her. Therefore just now when I introduced the subject, I said that we don’t want hearsay information. That information is from her and it was published. (Since) it was published, it is best that we get to the bottom of it by getting the information from her.

In the whole context, it was the overall incident and the subsequent follow up debates on the matter that started the polemic and created fear (among the public). I think we had acted professionally and after one day we had released her. I think that is a very good cause of action.

Why couldn’t the police just ask her to come in for questioning?

When the police feel it is best to bring the person in under the ISA, they will do so. The most important thing is not to exercise unfairness. When they find what they wanted and realise that she is not a security threat and she is not disturbing public order, they release her immediately.

That is why it is not an exercise on the part of the minister to hold the person under Section 8 which is two years (detention) straight away. The police feel that they should handle it and avoid any misunderstanding.

Do you as a minister feel that the ISA arrests were justified?

I’m a minister and politician. If I start to interfere, people will say I have a political motive. I cannot interfere with the police.

Would there be more arrests? People are saying that this is a mini-Operasi Lalang.

Really? Let me know if there are more (arrests). You shouldn’t ask me. We have done the arrests and so far there is no other arrests.

Is this part of a crackdown to stop Anwar Ibrahim from taking power?

If you look at the whole thing, there is no logic at all for it (ISA arrests) to be related to Sept 16. Sept 16 is a political move. They (PKR) have sent people to Taiwan. If they are successful, they can replace the government, then go ahead. It has nothing to do with the arrests which has to do with public order.