DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang today called on the government to follow up on the release of 19 Internal Security Act detainees earlier this week by introducing fundamental changes in government policy with regards to democracy, human rights and good governance.

Lim said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should ensure that the release of the detainees is not just "tokenism" of the premier's new appointment but it should be reflective of genuine change in outlook.

"The release of the ISA detainees just before Hari Raya was reminiscent of the first fortnight of the Mahathir premiership in 1981 when Mahathir released 21 detainees," he said in a press statement.

He said even newspaper headlines for the two occasions, separated by more than 20 years, were "eerily similar".

The New Straits Times headline for the 1981 releases read "It'll be a perfect Hari Raya" while the report on the releases earlier this week was titled "Raya joy for 19 ex-detainees".

Lim said, however, that the prime ministers responsible for both the releases played very different roles in the detention of the individuals in the first place.

He said that while Mahathir played no role in detaining the 21 men he released, Abdullah instead was the home minister who ordered the detentions in the first place.

Time has come

"DAP wishes Abdullah well and wants him to succeed as the fifth prime minister but what is urgently needed is not just tokenism but changes which (uphold) his pledge of a clean, incorruptible and modest government. The time has come for Abdullah to spell out these policies," Lim added.

On Monday, the Home Ministry released 19 individuals who had been accused of being members of militant organisations. Fifteen were former al-Ma'unah detainees and four were students who had recently returned from detention in Pakistan.

Among those released in July 1981 were DAP members of Parliament Chiang Heng Kai and Chan Kok Kit, former deputy minister Abdullah Ahmad (who was recently sacked as the NST editor-in-chief), former Parti Rakyat leader Kassim Ahmad and 11 members of a religious organisation known as the Righteous Path.