COMMENT In an ever-increasing sign that political events either side of the causeway are impacting both its neighbours, Malaysia’s recent announcement that it will soon repeal the notorious ISA has renewed calls for its abolition in Singapore.

Soon after news of the historic announcement in Malaysia on Sept 15 became public, the online world in Singapore ignited with chatter about doing away with the ISA.

lee hsien loong Independent news websites, blogs and Facebook users almost immediately began circulating a Straits Times report from Feb 3, 1991 where then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ( left ), during a visit by Malaysian journalists, was reported to have said “Singapore will seriously consider abolishing the Internal Security Act if Malaysia were to do so”.

Opposition parties and civil society groups joined the early online chatter with a chorus of statements.

The Singapore Democratic Party highlighted the need to do away with the ISA in Singapore. The Reform Party and Workers’ Party, while identifying their opposition to the ISA, added they will be agreeable for suitable laws to deal with terrorism acts.

Human rights groups MARUAH and Think Centre, which are gazetted as political associations in Singapore, each also detailed its opposition to the ISA.

As if to cull the momentum of these calls to abolish the ISA in Singapore,  the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement the next day insisting that the ISA is still “crucial and relevant” for the city-state.

Citing that Malaysia and Singapore were different, the Home Affairs Ministry went on to paint a picture that the ISA in the city-state has more safeguards against abuse and used only sparingly.

A few days after the government announcement saw an op-ed by a Singapore Management University academic, Eugene Tan, appear in the Today newspaper on Sept 19. His suggestion was to introduce more judicial review mechanisms so that the PAP government can better “sell” the ISA to Singaporeans.

Fuelling momentum for its abolishing

This only has sparked more criticism of Singapore’s ISA online and has served to fuel the momentum for its abolishing.

said zahari 090106 talking With not even a week passing since Malaysia announcement, a group of 16 Singaporean ex-ISA detainees, including Said Zahari ( right ), issued a joint statement questioning the “safeguards” of the Singaporean ISA legislation.

They highlighted that while there maybe be technical differences in the ISA legislation on both sides of the causeway, in Singapore detainees have generally been held captive without trial for much longer periods of time, some of which running into the decades.

This volume of public disagreement against the PAP government on ISA matters comes on the back of a recent election where the ruling party scored a historic record low popular vote of 60.1 percent.

Singaporeans having to endure a host of ineffective policies related to immigration, housing, transport and the cost of living coupled with limited civil liberties now openly reject and speak up against unpopular  PAP policies.

Hence, the crux of the matter is not so much “selling” ISA to Singaporeans, it is whether Singaporeans want to “buy” the ISA and all the other restrictions on civil liberties that is out of synch with global standards and not tolerated by an emboldened citizenry.

Although, to date these remain just calls, the Malaysian announcement can be expected to serve as a yardstick, against which activists in Singapore will increasingly place their calls for its abolishing.

But the Singaporean effort against the ISA can only keep the momentum going if the various groups that are speaking out against the ISA on a individual basis are willing to come together to form a coalition against this archaic law.

This is important in order to put pressure on the PAP government, otherwise it can simply ignore such pleas. For instance, government officials have yet to respond to a request by political NGO Singaporeans For Democracy to meet current ISA detainees to evaluate their detention conditions.

Although the request was sent in September, a week before the Malaysian announcement, there is still no news.

Whatever the outcome of the calls to abolish the ISA in Singapore, political forces on both side of the causeway are watching each other and the likely developments that will impact politics in both countries.

If the recent electoral results in Singapore are anything to go by, Umno might be concerned that it needs to shore its political credibility before the next polls. Announcing the removal of restrictions on civil liberties is just one way, but it remains to be seen if it will work.

DR JAMES GOMEZ is a Singaporean academic and manages an independent consulting initiative - The GOMEZ Centre ( www.thegomezcentre.org ).