Deputy Home Minister Zainal Abidin Zin was put in a spot today when families of the ISA 5 detainees exchanged words with him over his non-committal reply to the recent Federal Court ruling on the "unlawful" initial 60-day detention of the reformasi leaders.

He had earlier received on Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's behalf, a memorandum submitted by the families. Abdullah is due home tomorrow from the United Nations general assembly meet in US.

The memorandum handover at the Parliament lobby proceeded smoothly at first but both parties lost their cool when the families pressed the deputy minister for his stand on the matter.

The Federal Court in a habeas corpus hearing on Sept 6 ruled that the police had acted in "bad faith" in the arrest of the five reformasi leaders and that their initial 60-day ruling by the police was "unlawful".

Despite the decision called "schizophrenic", among others, by critics the detainees have not been set free as the court ruled that their subsequent two-year detention order signed by Abdullah was not covered in the habeas corpus application.

Rights groups have called for the group's immediate release and expectations have built up over the past few days in anticipation of Abdullah's return.

Yesterday, families of the detainees lodged a police report against Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai for allegedly providing "false and fabricated information" to Abdullah, which led to their incarceration under the ISA.

Husbands and wives

Zainal, when pressed by the detainees' families for his personal opinion on the recent Federal Court's decision, declined to comment beyond saying he will relay their memorandum and messages to Abdullah on his return.

Unsatisfied with his 'non-committal' stance, one of them remarked, "As a deputy minister, you must surely have an opinion on the issue."

"I am asked to hand him this memorandum and I will do it but do not argue with me about the Federal Court decision," Zainal shot back at the families, who were accompanied by members of the Abolish ISA Movement (AIM), a coalition of 83 non-governmental organisations seeking the repeal of the Act.

Zainal then tried to use an analogy to explain his situation. "Like husbands and wives, we may stay at the same house but we may not be able to say certain things."

One family member retorted: "But this not about husbands and wives."

Aliza Jaffar ( photo ), the wife of detained Keadilan leader Saari Sungib, who led the group at the lobby this morning, fired anew: "Why doesn't the government abide by the Federal Court decision?"

"We may abide by the court's decision but the police can take other actions, like arrest them again when they are released...you have seen it happen before," Zainal said.

Serious memo

AIM coordinator S Arutchelvam who was present with the families then asked Zainal when he would meet up with Abdullah to discuss the matter.

"We are serious about this," said Arutchelvam ( photo ) who is also the pro tem secretary-general of Parti Sosialis Malaysia.

Zainal, who seemed flustered by then, went on the offensive. "You think I am not serious. If you are not confident about this, take back your memorandum.

"Let's stop here...if we go further, we may start to quarrel," he added.

Mahfuz Omar (PAS-Pokok Sena) who was also there, tried to appease Zainal by quipping: "He knows what to do; he was in the opposition before," to which Zainal shot a repartee, "I was not in the opposition; I was only not in the government," before returning to the Dewan Rakyat.

Zainal was a key member of the now defunct Semangat 46, an Umno splinter group led by former finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah who had once tried but failed to challenge Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the top post. S46 made a pact with other opposition parties in the 1990 general election.

Threat to government

The five ISA detainees who filed the habeas corpus application were Keadilan leaders Tian Chua, Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor and Saari, malaysiakini columnist-cum-filmmaker Hishamuddin Rais and Free Anwar Campaign director Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin.

They were detained last year for allegedly plotting to topple the government through militant means. All have denied this.

Raja Petra was released before the expiry of the 60-day period while Mohd Ezam is now serving a two-year jail term at the Kajang Prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act.

The other reformasi detainees are Keadilan leaders Dr Badrulamin Bahron and Lokman Noor Adam, who are being held at the Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak with Chua, Saari and Hishamuddin.