Former minister Zainuddin Maidin has once again lambasted Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for repealing the Internal Security Act (ISA), which provided detention without trial.

To illustrate the needed for the preventive law, Zainuddin, who is widely known as Zam, cited the explosion at a nightclub in Bukit Bintang this morning, which killed one person and injured 13 others.

He described Bukit Bintang as home to the "hottest" entertainment scene in Kuala and a popular haunt for gays and lesbians.

The former information minister noted that while the police claimed that the explosion was linked to a gangland feud, it failed to prevent the people from linking the incident to what is happening in Southern Thailand and Indonesia.

"You also cannot stop people from thinking that it happened because the Malaysian prime minister wants to portray himself as a hero to (US President Barack) Obama in placing democracy and liberalism on par with the values of Western globalisation, to the point of being willing to repeal the ISA, which served to protect the nation’s security," Zainuddin added.

The former group editor-in-chief of Utusan Malaysia said Najib's action to repeal the ISA, without consulting the rakyat who supported it, also disabled the police from taking preventive measures.

The ardent supporter of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Mahathir had also realised that Malaysia cannot escape the "crocodile's jaws" in facing the West's "new colonialism".

"But it did not come to the point where we had to 'lick the crocodile's behind to escape the dragon' (menjilat punggong buaya untuk selamat dari naga)," he added in his blog.

Without mincing words, Zainuddin went on to accuse Najib of destroying the work of this his father, second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein.

"Najib has destroyed the fences (to safeguard the nation) built with the blood and tears of his father," he added.

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