A former minister from Germany today praised his countrys envoy to Malaysia, Juergen AR Staks, for speaking out against Malaysias controversial preventive detention law, the Internal Security Act.

I highly commend German Ambassador Staks, for his words against the ISA detentions in his recent interview with malaysiakini , said Germanys former minister for economics Dr Otto Graf Lambsdorff.

The chairperson of Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) said this in his speech at todays launch of two booklets on the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) by Era Consumer.

The event in Kuala Lumpur was jointly organised by the foundation and Era Consumer.

Era Consumer president Marimuthu Nadason, Tenaganita executive director Irene Fernandez and United Nations Special Rapporteur for Judiciary Independence Param Curamaswamy were also present at the launch.

In an exclusive interview with malaysiakini last month, the German ambassador said his government has frequently highlighted to the Malaysian authorities the need to abolish the ISA.

We would be pleased to see the ISA [disappear] from Malaysia. [However] Malaysia does not accept this for now and so we have to tolerate it, Staks said during the interview.

However, the ambassador stressed that this was not tantamount to interfering in the countrys internal affairs.

Staks had said this in reply to a question as to whether Germany is less committed to human rights in Asia compared with its European counterparts and the United States.

According to him, laws such as the ISA are virtually impossible in Germany as anyone arrested by police must be produced before a court within 24 hours.

He also argued that the Malaysian governments justification that the controversial act was inherited from the British colonials is unacceptable.

ISA not part of democracy

Approached by malaysiakini today, Lambsdorff said the ISA cannot be part of a democratic country and its legal system.

He said those who are alleged to have violated the law should be tried in open court.

The former minister added that Germany is interested to see the ISA abolished.

The German ambassador has said that publicly here in Malaysia and he spoke with the authority and backing of the German government, he said.

Asked if Germanys government policy on the ISA would affect its relationship with Malaysia, Lambsdorff responded : No, it does not affect German-Malaysia relationship. However, we would like to see our friends worldwide observe human rights and this is a violation of human rights.

The former minister also said the argument that the preventive detention law was inherited from the British is surprising because Malaysia is independent from British occupation.

He said that there are laws in his country which are no longer in use; likewise, Malaysia is not forced to use the ISA.

Lambsdorff also maintained that there is no justification for the ISA even after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.

Just after Sept 11, we have of course tightened our security worldwide in our fight against terrorism. But at the same time, we have to observe not to limit individual rights and individual freedoms [unnecessarily] because that would play into the hands of the terrorists, which would like to undermine our free society.