Fresh undergraduates of a local university were told by a federal minister today that Malaysia is a "stable" country because it has the Internal Security Act (ISA) since pre-independence.

"Why is our country secure? It's because before independence, we have stern laws, one of which is the ISA," said Rural Development Minister Azmi Khalid.

The minister was speaking at the launch of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia's (UTM) orientation week for new students at the branch campus in Jalan Semarak in Kuala Lumpur.

Although the ISA is criticised by certain people, Azmi claimed that other countries have also started to imitate the controversial Malaysian law in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

"While we are sad at the loss of lives, the good thing is even the United States copied our ISA. Their ISA is even worse than ours," he claimed, referring to the US Patriot Act which was formulated to safeguard the US from future terrorist attacks.

The ISA allows any individual, both Malaysian and non-Malaysian, to be detained without trial if he or she is suspected of being 'a threat to national security'.

Discretionary power

Under the ISA, the home minister has the discretionary power to detain suspects indefinitely, making it open to abuse by those in power to quell legitimate dissents.

The Patriot Act, on the other hand, though allowing for the preventive detention of suspected terrorists, is only applicable to non-US citizens and certainly not without trial and other safeguards to prevent it from being abused.

Azmi had earlier told the students how lucky they are to live in Malaysia as compared to those in neighbouring countries who might not be able to find good jobs even if they are highlye educated.

The minister also said Malaysians are lucky to have a "world-class" leader in Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who transformed the country from a commodity export-based economy to a manufacturing economy.

Azmi also noted that Malaysia today is the 15th largest trading nation in the world.

Right place, right time

"This is not politics. This is fact. You are at the right place at the right time," he told the students, urging them to make good use of the government's assistance for them by studying hard.

It is customary for new undergraduates of local public institutions of higher learning to undergo a week-long orientation to familiarise themselves to campus life.

Most public universities will require their students to sit through sessions after sessions of briefings, including "pep-talks" by prominent public figures.

The new batch of undergraduates in the branch campus is part of the 5,581 total intake for this year. Most of them in the branch campus will be undergoing diploma level courses in engineering and technical subjects, made their pledge to the university today.

Among others, they pledged to abide by the restrictive Universities and University Colleges Act, including any new amendments to the law which will be enforced in the future as well as any regulations made by the university.

They also promised not to be involved in activities which are undesirable and obstructive to UTM's administrative and academic affairs.