'Only few months ago, Najib said Malaysians were not matured enough to have street protests and he sent riot police to beat them up.'

Najib: ISA repealed to make M'sia the best democracy

Cala: PM Najib Razak has expressed his intention "to make Malaysia the best democracy in the world". He said that the repeal of the ISA "was possible because of the successful development of the nation, the increased maturity of the people and greater awareness of human rights".

He emphasised that this move was part of the political transformation that the government had undertaken along with changes in economics and education. He also said that the government would champion the "cause of the people in all its aspects".

But can the repeal of the ISA (assume it shall be) alone result in Malaysia having the best democracy without improvements in other human rights domains?

First, to an ordinary man on the street, democracy must come along with good governance by placing the interests of people first.

Second, is there rule of law? Will the tattered judiciary be independent from executive's jaws? Will the police be professional, or are they as usual the ‘licensed thugs' of the regime?

Third, how about the fight against corruption? Can we expect Malaysia to move closer to Singapore along this line and rid itself from the rule of the thieves?

Fourth, is the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) to be abolished? If not, why not? As it is, Freedom House in its 2010 edition places Malaysia in the category of "partly free democracy".

Indeed, Najib must do more than just repealing the ISA.

Foo: PM Najib, don't stop at the Internal Security Act; what about the PPPA, Official Secrets Act (OSA) and a string of other arbitrary and draconian acts?

And not forgetting an independent judiciary, police and civil service. Am I asking too much? These are but baby steps if you ever aspire "to make Malaysia the best democracy".

Multi Racial: Malaysia the ‘best democratic country' in the world where one could be caught and prosecuted for merely wearing yellow T-shirts in support of a cause? No, Malaysians are not stupid.

Imran: Only a few months ago, Najib said Malaysians were not matured enough to have street protests and he sent riot police to beat them up. Now he says Malaysians have matured. Is he drunk or am I?

Nil: Repealing the ISA has nothing to with democracy. It is about how the law is properly used, and not abused.

The ISA is necessary only when it is properly used against its intended targets, but for some reason, this has not been the case. Is the BN now afraid of a change of government?

AF McLaren: The devil is in the details. If Najib's announcement is about enacting two new laws to replace the ISA and that they involve the shortening of the initial police detention period from 60 days to 30 days, then it's just a public relations exercise.

BTN: Umno believes Malaysians are people without brains. We all know election is just around the corner and all this new development only points to that. There will be relentless propaganda by the government and those in MIC, MCA, Gerakan.

Watch out, as all the government media will be used to confuse those fence-sitters, as some believe what they read in our newspapers.

3 Stars: It took this PM and all the Umno/BN goons 52 years to realise that the ISA is undemocratic? What a waste of time. Najib is now super desperate to use his ace of spade in the hope to win back some brownie points.

Jeremy Ng: All of a sudden we became the best democracy in the world without ISA. I find it difficult to see the logic.

The only best 'democracy', I could equate is the freedom and easiness to make fast bucks by the powerful elites and unscrupulous politicians.

Koh: Opposition in panic and denial over ISA repeal

Ksn: Gerakan chief Koh Tsu Koon, get a hold of yourself. The question on everybody's mind is why it took so long to say that ISA will be abolished. It is an irrelevant law, out of date, and long abused by BN so that it can remain in power.

Why should there be other laws introduced in place of ISA? What are the changes proposed? Why can it not be abolished in the coming session of Parliament? Why the need to wait until next year?

These are some simple questions people want answers for.

Quigonbond: Koh has just demonstrated that the Gerakan remains Umno lapdog. I would have believed him if he said that pockets of Gerakan leadership have always called for abolishing the ISA - credit given when credit is due, and because some of Gerakan's leaders did express that in the past.

There is no need for him to stand against the opposition on this issue, because if challenged, I doubt he can name a single Pakatan Rakyat senior politician who has unreservedly welcome the PM's announcement to abolish the ISA without expressing some skepticism at the same time.

Onyourtoes: With a government that has absolute power, abuse of power can easily be carried out even without the ISA. This is what I have suspected all along.

The government would prefer to use specific criminal laws to charge and convict political opponents knowing that a submissive judiciary, an ever obliging police force and others will readily do the errands for them. Ask Lim Guan Eng and Anwar Ibrahim. They should know better.

The ISA per se is not evil, it is the abuse of ISA that is. And how does ISA get abused? It is dishonest leadership - leaders with suspicious credentials and doubtful mandate.

That is why they have to resort to detaining political opponents under the pretext of threats to national security. They know they cannot face their opponents on even ground.

Did the ISA ever state that it will be used to detain political opponents? But it was used, everybody knows that. I believe the new laws to be legislated to replaced the ISA, too, will state that the purpose is to contain and prevent terrorist activities.

But if we have opaque governance, submissive and subservient judiciary and corrupted bureaucrats all over the place - the abuse will happen, whatever the intention of the new laws.

RAW: I do not think that the opposition is in panic mode as claimed by Dr Koh. There is nothing to shout about the ISA announcement as yet. Given Najib's track record in keeping promises, it is like counting chickens before the eggs hatch.

Furthermore, what good is it to abolish ISA if it is to be replaced something even more repressive? Even if the ISA is really abolished by the Najib administration without replacing it by something similar, I do not see how the abolition can work in favour of BN when so far only the BN government has been the sole practitioner of ISA (after the British), and especially when there is a public perception that this episode on ISA repeal is more for political reasons than out of a genuine sincerity to right what is wrong.

The announcement to repeal ISA is meaningful only if Najib takes the first necessary step of issuing an official apology to all people who had been wrongly arrested under ISA.

Passing Cloud: Wait for the two new laws to be revealed before rejoicing. It could all be a repackaging exercise for which Najib and the federal government are notorious. The new laws could be worse.

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