The combination of nonsensically abusive laws and moral-less judges has given the Executive unbridled power to condemn an innocent citizen to unlimited torture and imprisonment. And this is what happened in the recent series of ISA detention on opponents of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's leadership.

To the horror and indignation of the nation, this inhuman ISA cruelty has now been unprecedentedly extended to university students opposed to the ruling power (one of them is the president of the Student Representative Council of the Universiti Malaya) on the pretext of looking for culprits in connection with the recent burning of a university hall.

Based on the notorious record of the police in forcing false confessions from past ISA detainees, most prominently those in connection with the recent infamous trials of Anwar Ibrahim, these students who are detained incommunicado , are now at the mercy of the police, whose penchant to inflict physical and mental torture is by now legendary.

All the opposition political parties and NGOs in this country have instantly demanded in unison the immediate release of these students or to alternatively charge them in court. Even if this request is not acceded to immediately, the minimum the police should do, is to allow the detainees immediate access to their lawyers and family members. This is to allay fears of police abuse on these students, in view of the unfavourable police record and the prime minister's expressed vindictiveness towards these students.

It is bad enough to use the ISA to crush legitimate political opposition, but to extend that uncivilised cruelty on students, just because they are critical of the prime minister's leadership, is truly abhorrent and detestable.

The prime minister may have been encouraged by the apparent ease with which he has gotten away with the recent abuse of ISA on his opponents, but it serves him well to be warned that he is now stretching the limit of tolerance of this nation by descending to such despicable depths as to unlawfully victimise students in his ruthless quest to suppress legitimate political dissent.