I refer to Susan Loone's opinion piece entitled 'When they took Jonah away' (July 10), which I found surprising as it lacked her usual trademarks; previous articles written by her are usually well-researched, informative and provide a balanced view and perspective on an event.

Most readers tend to confuse the phrases "arrested under ISA" and "detained under ISA". A person arrested under the Internal Security Act will not necessarily be detained for two years. The difference between "arrest under ISA" and "arrest under ordinary criminal law" is the period of detention. Under ordinary criminal law, the police are allowed to detain a person for up to 14 days to facilitate investigation whereas under the ISA, a person can be detained for up to 60 days. A person can be released much earlier if police investigation shows that there is no offence committed by the person.

The writer also failed to mention about the intended function of the ISA. Ordinary criminal laws are meant to be punitive laws, i.e. laws that deal with the crime after it takes place whereas ISA is a law meant to be preventive, i.e. to prevent certain event from happening. Mona Fandey who murdered Batu Talam assemblyman Datuk Mazlan Idris and the bus driver suspect accused of raping and murdering Noor Suzaily Mukthar were given trials because the crimes had been committed and the police had sufficient evidence to prosecute them.

Since the police is the sole authority responsible for the security of the nation, I fully agree that they should be given the power to arrest suspects under the ISA for up to 60 days but at the end of the period, the person must either be released or charged in open court.