I was shocked that blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin has been detained without trial under the ISA. This is a barbaric thing to do to a person because internationally accepted legal principles clearly state that a person is "innocent until proven guilty".

In fact, most Malaysians are not even sure as to why he has been detained. Some politicians have made comments about Raja Petra insulting Islam. In that case, he should be tried in the Syariah Court.

The ISA is a preventive detention law adopted to combat the armed insurgency of the Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan emergency. Yet it is a foul and abominable law that strips away a person's basic God-given right to freedom and justice.

Using preventive detention measures are morally wrong, even when used against suspected terrorists. The ISA is akin to trawl fishing where even dolphins, turtles and whales get entangled in the web and die.

It is unknown just exactly how many people who are jailed using detention without trial methods are actually guilty because most detainees are just released and never charged. It is possible and most likely that nearly all of them are innocent which explains why no evidence exists.

The ISA is like the ‘black hole’ of the universe where the laws of physics no longer apply.

Many people are concerned and speculate that this hostility towards Raja Petra started after he implicated the deputy prime minister, Najib Razak, in the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

The correct police procedure is to investigate all leads that it can get. Raja Petra has the right to accuse so why are the authorities so sore about the allegations made by Raja Petra. Even in the UK, the accidental death of Princess Diana has been claimed by Mohamed Al-Fayed to be an assassination plot involving the British secret service.

The British government has not detained Al-Fayed but in Malaysia, when someone makes an allegation, they are whisked away and put behind bars for speaking out.

Raja Petra has the right to speak. Shutting him up by banning his website or physically incarcerating him only makes people believe that he is too close to the bone for comfort.