The FC, Judiciary, The ISA, Parliament, Quotable Quotes

‘the Courts would annul any attempt
to subvert any of them whether by legislative
or administrative action or otherwise’.
~Reid Commission Report, Chapter IX,
Fundamental Rights: Constitutional Guarantees, Para 161 p. 70.

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The ISA permits the executive to detain anyone it likes:
- without a court trial,
- without any possibility of judicial review of the minister's decision and
- without any limits on how many two-year periods of detention may be ordered.
The use to detain individual dissidents indulging in non-violent opposition to the Government in peace time is a violation of the letter and spirit of Article 149 of the Federal Constitution.

Article 149 gives power to the Parliament to pass laws to suspend a person's fundamental rights vested to him in Part II of the Constitution if the Parliament believes that the person is a threat to national security or public order notwithstanding the fact that the laws are conflicting with Article 5, 9, 10 and 13 and 79.
The laws passed to the effect of this article include, to name a few:

Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 (Revised 1980)

Internal Security Act 1960 (Revised 1972)

Official Secrets Act 1972

Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984

Sedition Act 1948 (Revised 1969)

Universities and University Colleges Act 1971n

The Acts mentioned above recognize the death penalty, the detention without trial, the caning and the silencing of people critical to the government to be lawful although they contradict with the articles on fundamental rights in Part II of the Constitution.

National sovereignty is a shield against foreign aggression but it cannot be used as a weapon against one's own people. There is a difference between national security and security of the government.

The overall effect of the ISA is that the Executive is allowed to play the role of accuser, investigator as well as adjudicator

No government can allow one man to exercise such complete power over another's life and liberty.

"Not only have the Malaysian courts failed to annul the encroachments on the fundamental rights but their lack of judicial activism has in fact
subverted those rights further.

The failure of the Malaysian courts in relation to the ISA starts with the fact that they have generally accepted the subjective satisfaction of the executive
for justifying the detention of an individual .....

The current approach of the Malaysian courts only serves to reduce executive accountability and respect for human rights under the rule of law."
~ Hardial Singh Khaira

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“no one in his right senses like[s] the ISA.
It is in fact a negation of
all the principles of democracy.”
~ Mahathir Mohamed, ISA Parliamentary debate 1960

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“Laws such as the Internal Security Act
have no place in modern Malaysia.
It is a draconian and barbaric law.”
-Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, 1987

"You pass this Bill, but remember that one day
somebody else, perhaps, not as democratic as you are,
may be sitting on that very Bench;
and when that time comes you—
perhaps not you but the children of those
who to-day support this Bill—will say,
"My God! we regret the day
we introduced this Bill into this House.”
~ D.R. Seenivasagam, Debate on ISA

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“It makes this country a complete police State. .....
Independence without freedom is an empty independence, because the people of this land fought for their freedom, fought for their independence, so that they will be free.
They did not fight for independence so that they become unfree, so that they become slaves of the police.”
- Karam Singh

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“My cabinet colleagues and I gave
a solemn promise to Parliament and the nation that
the immense powers given to the government
under the ISA would never be used to
stifle legitimate opposition and silence lawful dissent.“
~Tun Dr Ismail.

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“Organised violence is the key to the preamble,
but a lot of people who had nothing to do
with organised violence at all have been arrested”
~Prof. R.H. Hickling, the man who drafted the ISA Bill,1960
[NST;30 July 2006]

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Saya menganggap bahawa kuasa yang ada
kapada Pegawai Polis sekarang ini sudah terlalu luas,
dan memberikan kuasa yang demikian ini
menangkap sa-saorang, menggelidah rumah sa-saorang
dengan tidak ada warrant,
ini ada-lah keterlaluan dalam semua kuasa2 ini.
Saya bertanya, apa-kah ini di-adakan, apa-kah ini,
di-chiptakan dengan maksud untok menjelmakan
negara ini kapada satu negara polis?
~ Ahmad Boestamam.

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“In parliamentary democracy ......
no government worthy of its name
in any democratic country will dare to abuse these powers
so long as parliamentary democracy exists,
because public opinion is the restraining influence
behind any government in any democratic country.
I say, let these powers be abused,
and you will see how
the people in the country
will rise against it.”

- Tun Dr, Ismail.

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NOTE**
The above is a "cut & paste job" from literature & blogs freely available on the www.