When it comes to self-rationalisation, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad certainly shows his age. His expressed gratitude

to the Internal Security Act (ISA) in his budget speech borders on senility or outright ignorance of the basic principles of democracy.

The ISA may be a law endorsed by the people's representatives in Parliament as highlighted in his speech. Yet in the same breath, he alluded to the principle of separation of powers as one of the pillars of democracy.

So how come the judges presiding over ISA cases almost always conclude that the ISA is effectively beyond judicial review? If indeed as the learned judges had declared so, then where is the separation of powers?

The truth is simply that the ISA is a draconian law enacted without due consideration of individual liberties enshrined in the Federal Constitution. The constitution is the supreme law of the country which our judges should always adhere to when interpreting any legislation. Now we are told that they cannot.

So where is the democracy that the ISA is supposed to have saved according to Mahathir? More likely than not, it is the ISA that had killed any semblance of a democratic state that our forefathers had left us. If anything, what the ISA really saved from the people's wrath is a corrupt regime bent on perpetuating communal animosity to further its narrow and selfish ends.

For me, Mahathir's call to be grateful for the ISA is like asking me to sleep soundly knowing that at any time some faceless gorillas can just kidnap me for no declared nor justifiable reason, authorised only by the constitutional powers of a majority of elected persons whose record for respect of the constitution itself is deplorable.

At least the old-fashioned dictators were honest about what they really stood for. Instead, Malaysians have to put up with the twisted logic of Mahathir day in and day out.