The menace of regression is in the air and Dr Syed Husin Ali is not amused one bit.

As the author of a recent work entitled ‘Malay Rulers: Reform or Regression’, the second term Pakatan Rakyat senator from Selangor is decidedly uneasy about bringing back a law that was a part of the country's retrogressive past.

The repealed Internal Security Act (ISA), a draconian holdover from the country's colonial past that was retired from the statue books just over a year ago, is being talked into revival.

This talk makes the flesh of Syed Husin, 77, an ISA detainee for six years - from December 1974 to late 1980 - creep horribly...