Malaysia should not dread international probes into its human rights record if the government has nothing to hide, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Param Cumaraswamy said today.

He added that the government should adopt a mature attitude in explaining its policies to the international community.

"It is distressing to note that the government ignored the presence of an international fact-finding mission and refused to meet its members despite efforts made for an audience," he said before launching a book entitled 'Unjust Order: Malaysia's Internal Security Act'.

The book contains the findings of a year-long study undertaken last year by a team of researchers from a law school in New York - the Fordham Law School's Joseph R Crowley Program in International Human Rights.

Param was commenting on the government's refusal to meet the nine-member team that had come to Malaysia to collect information as part of their study on the use and impact of ISA.

No one from the government had accepted invitations to meet with the researchers.

"This is not the first time the government was indifferent towards international fact-finding missions. Human rights violations among member states in the international community are no longer a domestic matter," Param said.

He urged the government to comply with its obligations under the 1999 UN General Assembly Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and to protect human rights activists.

Harrowing experience

After the launch, five reformasi activists who were recently released from ISA detention were invited to share their experiences at the Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak over the past two years.

Saari Sungib, Lokman Adam, Tian Chua, Hishamuddin Rais and Dr Badrulamin Bahron vowed to continue their struggle for reform despite the harrowing time they have gone through.

Lokman said he believed their release was due to the upcoming general election, due by November 2004.

"Maybe (Prime Minister) Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) ( photo, left ) was afraid to face (US President George W) Bush ( photo, right ) who would have asked him about our detention," he said referring to the G-8 summit in France early this month which the two leaders had attended.

Lokman said he has been giving speeches at ceramah (political gatherings) every night since his release from Kamunting on June 12 and will continue to do so until Mahathir is gone (from office in October).

"I have a strong feeling that Anwar (Ibrahim, photo ) may be released on bail after his application is heard on July 14," he said.

Anwar, who is former deputy prime minister, has applied for bail pending his appeal against his six-year sodomy jail sentence.

Change of cage

A pony-tailed Saari said the most important attitude to take during detention was a strong fighting spirit.

For Badrulamin, being prepared for the worst and even having false hopes was always better than having no hope at all.

"I miss Kamunting. I miss our (and Hishamuddin's) 12 cats that we used to share food with," he quipped.

For Tian Chua, his freedom was a case of being released from a small cage into a bigger one.

"There is no guessing why we were all released because the law is arbitrary. The whole country is not free from the ISA. Everyone is living in fear of it."

He said there is nothing to fear about being detained under the ISA, but that the most difficult time was the first 60 days, when he was in total isolation.

Tian Chua also noted that there is a change in mood today compared to (the police sweep codenamed) Ops Lalang in 1987 - a crackdown during which over 100 dissidents were arrested under the ISA.

"I sense that people now are no longer fearful, and this is a good sign because the first step towards abolishing the ISA is to eliminate the culture of fear instilled by the government."