A human rights commissioner, lawyers and activists have questioned the appropriateness in using the Internal Security Act (ISA) to detain a government servant and eight others suspected of issuing and circulating unauthorised Malaysian identification documents.

The ISA, enacted in 1960 to fight communist-led insurgents, allows for detention without trial for an indefinite period of time.

Lawyer Edmund Bon explained that there are sufficient laws to address the issue of forgery and other crimes related to the illegal sale of these documents including the MyKad (Malaysian identity card) and permanent residency cards.

"Chapter 18 of the Penal Code and the National Registration Regulations 1990 spell out punishments for crimes of forging valuable documents and related offences," he said when contacted yesterday.

Section 474 of the Penal Code states that whoever is involved in possession of a valuable security document with the knowledge that it will be forged or used illegally as a genuine document can be jailed for up to seven years.

The civil servants involved in the racket are said to have circulated uncollected MyKads to syndicates trafficking humans as well as to illegal immigrants.

Enough evidence

"The authorities would have been investigating this for a while now (despite) the arrests being fairly recent. They should have enough evidence to charge the alleged perpetrators. If there's not enough evidence or proof thus far, then on what basis have the authorities detained them?" asked Bon.

He said there is a 15-day allocation for suspects to be held under remand and this was sufficient time for interim investigations to be conducted and evidence gathered.

"In fact, the remand period here is much longer than any other country. In Singapore, the police are only given 48 hours to detain a suspect before having to charge them with an offence and arrest them," he added.

The government had said that national security issues were raised with the scam but Bon wanted clarity in whether it mounts to actually that. So did another lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad.

"National security is serious but is that the case here? When the MyKad was approved in Parliament, there must have been regulations created in relation to it. Use existing laws to charge them, not the ISA to detain them," Amer told malaysiakini yesterday.

A National Registration Act 1959 regulating the use of these documents also exists.

Yesterday, the government via the Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid announced that the suspects were being held under the ISA because "we need to isolate them from the system, we need to break the link".

He was also reported to have said earlier that it was also done for their own safety.

Global human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI) disagrees with the use of ISA here and has for a long time been advocating - together with local organisations - for its repeal.

In a statement on the recent arrests, AI said it "opposes the use of the ISA as it violates fundamental human rights, including the right to a fair and open trial in a court of law.

"During the initial 60-day detention period, detainees are usually held in solitary confinement. The fact that they are denied contact with the outside world, including lawyers and family members, makes them particularly vulnerable to torture or ill-treatment".

Women Development Collective (WDC) executive director Maria Chin Abdullah, while calling for a thorough investigation, said that the ISA should not be used to sweep the matter under the carpet.

Speaking to malaysiakini yesterday Chin said "this case involves public funds and it is a public matter. The MyKad was introduced by the government and it has spent a lot of pubic funds on it".

"But the use of ISA is not right as it allows the abuse of human rights especially with no legal representation given to those detained," she noted adding that further and proper investigations were necessary as she opined that higher ranking officers were inadvertently involved in the scandal.

New law

Meanwhile S Arutchelvan, coordinator at rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), said that the government should seriously consider enacting a new law to specifically protect national security.

"The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) made recommendations to the government - which were not tabled in parliament - to repeal the ISA and enact a new law which allows a judicial review of detentions while protecting national security," he said when contacted yesterday.

Suhakam commissioner Hamdan Adnan, who was reported in a local daily on Monday as saying that the officials involved should be punished, told malaysiakini that what was more important was for them to charged as soon as possible.

The ISA allows detainees to be policed for 60-days and subsequently the government has the arbitrary power of ordering their continued indefinite incarceration .

A habeas corpus (judicial review of the detention's legality) can be sought for the initial 60-day period but it is rare for such applications to succeed .