A friend recently attended an exclusive dinner and discussion session for young professionals with the new Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. The session, organised at a swanky five-star hotel in town, saw Najib giving a speech about Malaysia's role in the new world order.

Predictably, part of Najib's speech was centred on his lamentation about the arrogance of the US as the sole superpower in the world, and he also criticised them for their despicable treatment of prisoners in Iraq, in light of the recent revelations of torture and abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.

One of the attendees had stood up during the question and answer session, and asked Najib that while it is well and good that we criticise the US for their violation of prisoners' rights, what does he propose to do about allegations made by ISA detainees and those under police detention, that Malaysia, too, has been systematically subjecting their prisoners to a pattern of abuse, ill-treatment and humiliation that is a clear violation of human rights?

"We will not apologise for the ISA ," was Najib's answer, saying that the reason that we were all living in peace in Malaysia was because the ISA has stamped out 'problems' such as communism and terrorism.

"The ISA is there so that we can live in peace and security," he said. It's ironic that that is exactly the excuse that US President George W Bush gave to justify the war in Iraq.

Not unaware

My friend found it rather amusing that having spent a bulk of his speech lambasting Bush for his half-hearted apologies about the treatment of prisoners, Najib himself has taken the ultimate high-handed approach when dealing with his own government's indiscretion.

He could have said: 'The government views all allegations of ill-treatment of prisoners seriously and we will act upon it if there is evidence,' or at least something to the effect.

Instead, Najib unhesitatingly phrased his response with his 'We will not apologise,' giving the impression that, in many ways, the government justifies and approves of the treatment of prisoners under the ISA.

I am sure Najib is not unaware of the many allegations of abuses of ISA detainees. Recently, there have also been many reports of abuses of suspects taken under police custody , including extra-judicial deaths.

Sleep deprivation, 24-hour interrogation, food deprivation, physical abuse, mental torture, humiliation of a sexual nature these allegations have been well-documented in many reports and books written by former ISA detainees.

The black eye

Like the Abu Ghraib incidents, these methods were used to physically and mentally break the detainees down so that they will admit to anything.

According to one former ISA detainee, Hishamuddin Rais, after he had been subjected to various mental and physical tortures he was ready to even admit that he had assassinated the late President John F Kennedy such was the scale of the anguish inflicted upon the detainees.

Similarly, an imam of a mosque in Baghdad, who had been stripped naked and asked to parade in front of women prisoners, said he begged God to take his life because it was no longer worth living.

In 1998, Anwar Ibrahim appeared in court after his initial ISA detention with a black eye later to be discovered to have been the work of the highest-ranking police officer in the country.

Was there a public outcry? Yes. Was there an apology? Definitely no. In fact, the former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad even suggested that Anwar had faked his own black eye to gain public sympathy.

There has never been a culture of apology in this country even when the abuse, violation or even crime that took place had been proven to be committed at the highest levels of government. More often than not, the government will try to sweep all the abuses under the carpet but in many cases, they actually do try to justify the act.

Bush apologised

Hence, it is really no surprise that Najib said Malaysia would not apologise for the ISA and all the abuses that come with it. He justifies this by saying we owe our peace and security to the ISA but without a shred of evidence that this is indeed the case.

I am not sure if putting a bunch of opposition politicians in Kamunting has made Malaysia a much safer and secure place. I do know, however, that it has made the Barisan Nasional politicians feel more secure in power.

When the Abu Ghraib photos first came out, the whole world, Malaysia included, demanded that Bush apologise publicly for the abuses. And Bush, the leader of the world's only superpower, did.

When South Korean president Roh Moo Hyun was accused of corruption and abuse of power early this year, he gave a speech in which he apologised for his indiscretions and said he will take responsibility for the allegations made against him.

When the former Indonesian president Suharto was ousted from government, his successor BJ Habibie took on the onerous role of apologising to the people for the abuses that had taken place under Suharto's government of which he had been a part of. Successive presidents are still apologising for Suharto's misdeeds.

It is part of human nature to make mistakes. Governments, too, make mistakes, for which they must be held accountable for, especially to the people who had voted for them. It takes a really big heart to stand up there and apologise for these mistakes.

Big enough

The Malaysian government has got away with just about every abuse there is in the book for which other governments have had to at least to apologise for, if not resign or be replaced.

Britain's former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson resigned in 2001 after allegations surfaced that he had asked for a close personal friend of his to be given a British passport. But here, a local Cabinet minister can still remain in power even when it was revealed that his 'allies' had obtained hundreds of taxi licences questionably.

There has been two deaths, one alleged rape case and various other criminal acts committed during the recent national service programme for youths, yet the minister in charge is still waxing lyrical about its virtues and giving dinner talks at five-star hotels.

In any other developed and civilised nation, allegations such as the ISA abuse in Malaysia, would have sparked an outcry because of the blatant human rights violation. Not here. Because in our democracy, our ministers are immune from public scrutiny and political accountability.

This presents a problem for the people in this country because for years, we have been recycling our bad apple ministers with no way of removing them for incompetency or indiscretion.

It is amazing that Najib feels he has the moral authority to demand apologies from others for their crimes when he knows he will never be big enough to demand the same standards from himself.

KARIENA ABDULLAH, a graduate of University of London, frequently writes for reformasi publications.