M'sia's other half on 'filling Kamunting to the brim'

Malaysians in Sabah and Sarawak - human rights activists, lawyers, politicians and journalists, among others - are in unanimity that Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein is a voice from the past for his views on the Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.

Hishammuddin has been reported last week as saying that he “would not hesitate to fill the Kamunting Detention Centre to the brim if there are people out there who are a threat to national security”.

Kota Kinabalu lawyer Ram Singh wants the line between politics and threats to national security clarified while PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan sees lessons in his own detention under the ISA.

Elsewhere, Brunei-based senior Sarawak journalist Mikhail Muthu thinks that the ISA proves that “politics is the last resort of the scoundrels”.

On the other hand, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) secretary-general Wilfred Nissom is in a definite minority of one in backing the ISA.

Other Sarawakians including journalists, politicians and senior civil servants beg to differ with Nissom. However, Nissom concedes at the same time that the Act in its present form may have outlived its usefulness and needs to be brought more up-to-date.

Irresponsible people who are out to cause chaos should be removed to Kamunting where they can’t harm the peace of other people, according to Nissom.

These irresponsible people, in his view, instigate and create ill-will between communities and eventually cause disorder in the country.

He declines to point fingers at anyone in particular when asked whether he meant people behind media organisations such as Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia .

“I haven’t seen BN or heard them going around preaching hate towards any community,” said Nissom without batting an eyelid. “We know which group seems hell-bent on creating chaos in the country.”

The Bidayuh strongman has no problems with anyone fighting for change – “it’s not necessarily bad” – and this can be done by participating in elections.

Kitingan in Kamunting for ‘cooked-up charges’

Both Suhakam (Human Rights Commission) vice-chairperson Simon Sipaun and PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan want the ISA scrapped.

Kitingan, in particular, has bleak views of the ISA since he has personally experienced how the Act can be abused for political reasons.

The Sabah politician was at the height of his prime and fame in the 1990s when he was held under the ISA, along with nephew Maximus Ongkili, for “plotting to take Sabah out of Malaysia”.

Ongkili, however, was released after 57 days when elder brother James - a former Sabah deputy chief minister and federal minister - personally interceded with then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Kitingan spent several years in detention.

The real issue behind the “cooked-up charge”, in Kitingan’s words, was Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) pulling out of the ruling BN on the eve of the 1990 general elections.

PBS teamed up with the opposition Gagasan Malaysia led by one-time Kelantan Umno strongman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

“Those who have been held under the ISA can never forget it,” said Kitingan in reiterating that the Act should be scrapped.

“It is a deliberate attempt to either starve one to death or to drive one crazy. I am not surprised to hear that there’s an ISA detainee who has been in detention seven years and has since become a suspected mental case .”

Kitingan reckons the real benefits of national security in terms of the stability in the value of a currency, the credit rating of a country, values in the stock market, and the confidence of foreign and local investors in the economy and the judiciary.

This means, according to Kitingan, in the ability of a government to ensure the security of its borders and to help ensure security in its immediate border regions.

Failure to do so, adds Kitingan, is a marked diminishing of our national wealth because of the loss of international confidence in us.

“It’s a myth to say that internal security alone is enough to ensure our national security,” said Kitingan. “We have been unable to help ensure stability in south Thailand, Aceh, southern Philippines and the security of our borders in Sabah.”

Kitingan also points to unresolved issues in the Spratly and Paracel islands with many claimants and border issues elsewhere with the Philippines over eastern and northern Sabah, with Brunei over Limbang Division in Sarawak and with Indonesia in Ambalat and the Natuna Islands.

Suhakam wants ISA abolished entirely

Sipaun finds it difficult to comprehend why Hishammuddin made the “fill Kamunting to the brim” statement.

“It is not a helpful statement in the present political climate,” said Sipaun. “He can be accused of trying to politicise the issue of national security.”

Suhakam’s stand, according to Sipaun, is that the ISA must be abolished in its totality and replaced with a new Act that would cover a more up-to-date definition of national security and what constitutes a threat to national security.

Efforts to combat terrorism should form the centerpiece in the new legislation, he added. “Terrorism can diminish values, drive up the cost of insurance cover and the cost of doing business.”

Suhakam has since submitted a revised draft for the new law to the government but so far there has been no feedback.

The thrust of the new Act is that there must be a Schedule of Offences “which can be considered as threats to national security”.

“The present act is vague and highly subjective,” said Sipaun. “It was actually tailored to combat communist terrorism. The communists have long gone and the Act is still with us to make the world look at us with great misgivings.”

Lawyer Singh, like the others, is concerned about the ISA being abused for political reasons.

“Hishammuddin is trying to put fear by the threat in his statement,” said Singh. “We have enough lawyers in this country to protect our country’s security. We should have faith in our country’s judiciary to help protect national security.”

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