Dear (US) Attorney-General John Ashcroft,

It was only recently that you had the company of Malaysia's Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, who is also the de facto Law Minister, Mr Rais Yatim.

He claims that you have "positively endorsed" the significance of the Internal Security Act (ISA) and that you have "understood the relevance, the utilisation and the background of Malaysia having such a law".

This dramatic change of stance by the US, if true, is so reminiscent of the 'reformed' views of the minister himself on the ISA — ever since he became part of the "supreme Executive" which he had once so severely criticised.

It may surprise you to know that Rais Yatim had in 1993, written a voluminous and thought-provoking doctoral dissertation entitled "Freedom under Executive power in Malaysia — a study of Executive supremacy".

His work was so very convincing and compelling, and he had such great compassion for the many victims of political oppression in this country that he even dedicated his thesis "....to all who have suffered from the tyranny of executive excesses".

Did he mention to you how he once felt that: "Detention without trial is easily the most draconian and controversial of executive powers available to the government vis-a-vis the basic rights of individuals"?

Did he share with you that he had found that the ISA "has been enforced in a manner more drastic than was the case when it was originally enacted in 1960"?

Surely he would at least have supplied you with the mounting examples of the "atrocities and afflictions against the individual detainee brought about by arbitrary detention"?

Why, he had in his masterpiece, even quoted Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the present Prime Minister, who, "while being a government backbencher in 1966 admitted that 'no one in his right sense like the ISA. It is in fact a negation of all the principles of democracy'."

Rais Yatim also told the press recently that he spoke to you of the need of "preventive measures" in tackling terrorism, the ISA being one of such measures.. Yet, it was once so evident to him that: "Clearly, the continued practice of denying a man the right to be heard in a court of law is in direct violation of a basic right and accepted international standards and covenants."

We are told that during your meeting with Rais Yatim you had shown great enthusiasm to work with Malaysia in combating terrorism. The use of the ISA today has nothing to do with combating terrorism but everything to do with silencing critics. Rais had put it so well when he wrote:

"....it is not unknown for the ISA to be politically used to silence opposition. Looking at the number of opposition leaders, academicians and activists who have been detained in the past decade, especially under Operation Lalang , this allegation appears now to be unrebuttable."

The man who now boasts to you of the ISA being a major part of Malaysia's "legal infrastructure" to combat "terrorism" once made the keen observation that "the ISA has indeed emerged as the most powerful executive instrument in effecting arrest and detention without any judicial control whatsoever. Perhaps this is why the ISA has been described as 'white terror' ".

Indeed, the saddest truth that has evolved in Malaysia today is that the once-colonised have now become the 'white' colonisers and they are using the very instruments left behind by the colonial power, and honed to perfection, to 'terrorise' the people. Can there be a more devious form of 'terrorism' that this?

Rais Yatim had deserted his dissertation since he became part of the executive. For those of us who value freedom and justice it is rather disturbing to see how a high-ranking and senior minister could, for one moment, write volumes on and show great vehemence for the ISA, and at another, describes it as "merely an academic exercise".

It would not be surprising that he would one day call the meeting with you "merely a PR exercise". It is very clear that the Malaysian minister who visited you is only an opportunist and one who places personal political expediency above principles, truth and justice.

His visit to the US to solicit your support and endorsement for the ISA, gives further credence to the fact that he lacks moral courage, conviction and credibility. Malaysians can easily recall that it is this very same minister who has through the years been condemning your country for "interfering" and telling US to mind its own business. Now he makes it your business and begs, bows and bends for your approval.

His intellectual sharpness has been so dented by his many compromises and hypocrisy that he now claims that the (US) Patriot Act is "quite similar in nature to the ISA".

Yet, as was so accurately and succinctly explained by the US Ambassador to Malaysia, Marie Huhtala, in an interview

with malaysiakini in January this year, the Patriot Act is different from the ISA as it is not used against their (US) own nationals nor to crack down on political opposition.

(One excellent and concrete example of this is the court case of John Walker Lindh, the American who has been accused of supporting terrorism.)

Indeed, like Rais Yatim, many Malaysians hope you will be able "to understand the significance of the preventive law in Malaysia" — especially its "significance" to both Rais Yatim and the government which he serves with supine submission.

Endorsing the Internal Security Act would be endorsing a law which is being increasingly used arbitrarily by the powers that be to ensure their own security and to perpetuate their power and rule. Surely this goes against the very spirit of the courageous and good citizens of the "Land of the Free".