Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim said that it is "uncommon" for a judge to arrive at a conclusion that the government should change a law, according to a Bernama report today.

The minister was responding to Justice Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus's judgment on Wednesday, in the case of two Keadilan leaders, N Gobalakrishnan and Abdul Ghani Haroon who had been held under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The judge who was hearing the duo's habeas corpus applications had ordered their release on the grounds that their detention was unlawful. He also called on the Parliament to review the relevance of the ISA.

"Of course many people believe there ought to be changes... they can voice their feelings no doubt... but when interpreting the law it is rather uncommon for a judge to come to the conclusion that the government should change the law itself," Rais was quoted by Bernama .

"What a judge is normally required to establish, within the provisions at hand, is whether the guilt is there or whether it meets with the requirements of the law. As to which law to amend or which law is to be discarded, it is not the role of the judge."

In his judgment, Hishamudin had added that if the ISA was to be retained, at least its provisions needed to be thoroughly reviewed to prevent or minimise abuses.

'Provided tranquility'

The decision of the Shah Alam court was a judicial one, hence all parties should refrain from making their own interpretations, Rais told Bernama .

"But of course the public at large, academics as well as those practising law, are quite free to express their own findings about the judgment. I can only summarise it in terms of the academic approach," he added.

Rais further reasoned that although the ISA is unpopular in the "eyes of certain people", the Act had produced peace and tranquility.

"The fact remains that it has produced the kind of tranquility that Malaysians have experienced," said the minister.

Dr Rais Yatim had in 1988 written a paper entitled [#1] 'Detention without trial: Has the time for abolition come?' [/#], which highlights issues relating to executive detention and the reasons and justifications as to why the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) should be repealed.