Two former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees have said that Singapore should abolish the law, just as Malaysia has proposed to do away with its own ISA.  

Francis Seow and Tang Fong Har spoke via teleconference yesterday at a public forum on the ISA organised by the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and attended by about 150 people, reported local television Channel NewsAsia.

It was the first time that dissidents in exile were communicating with Singaporeans in public.

Seow, 83, who lives in the United States, was detained in 1988 after being accused of receiving funds from the United States to establish a more effective opposition in Parliament.

Tang, who was accused of being a member of an alleged Marxist conspiracy and was detained in 1987, said the law should be repealed but not replaced with something even worse.

Both Tang and Seow want to return to Singapore. It is believed that Seow is still a Singapore citizen while Tang renounced her citizenship in 2003.   

Malaysia has announced that the ISA, a preventive detention law, will be repealed in March next year after two replacement laws have been drafted.

- Bernama