The gross misuse and abuse of the Emergency (Public Order and Preventive of Crime) Ordinance 1969 (EO) on ordinary citizens of the country does not merely lie with the police but with the slipshod manner of the Internal Security Ministry itself.

This was a personal account from a EO detainee who spent two years from 2002 in the Simpang Renggam detention centre in Johor who related his story to the public in a forum entitled 'POPO The Other ISA' in Kuala Lumpur today.

MK Ganesan ( right ), 41, told the captivated crowd that he once called (then deputy Internal Security Minister) Noh Omar and asked him if he had met, seen or interviewed anybody from the detention centre in Simpang Renggam before signing the form extending detention up to two years.

"He said 'no'. He even apologised and said that he was new at this."

"It takes him only two seconds to sign that form but it cost me two years of my life. Does he even know the effect of this?" he told the audience of about 60 people.

The EO is an antiquated preventive detention law that allows for arbitrary detention without trial.

It provides the police with the power to detain a person for up to 60 days without producing him before a magistrate. At the end of 60 days, the home minister can make an order of detention for two years, which is renewable indefinitely.

'Make us worse'

The ordinance was originally drafted to quell the spread of violence and destruction after the May 1969 racial riots and is now used to detain and restrict suspected gangsters and violent criminals.

Ganesan, a businessman, was among the detainees at the centre who started a hunger strike in 2004.

"We were demanding for better conditions and rights. Simpang Renggam is a rehabilitation centre meant to rehabilitate us but instead, we are sent to a place that does not make us better but worse," he said.

He then went on to say that the police aren't doing their work by arresting youths for reasons such as stealing jackfruits and bananas or scolding their mothers.

"I have spoken to people in the detention centre who were detained for up to four years based on these so-called offences."

"What kind of system is this? If you can prove I'm wrong then charge me, don't keep me here. We are not kept as detainees, we are kept like criminals," he lamented.

The situation is worsened by the fact that youths are kept in the same cell as hardcore criminals.

"The government is producing hardcore criminals by arresting youths and keeping them together with real offenders," he said at the forum jointly organised by the Bar Council Legal Aid Center (KL) and Suaram

Suhakam man under fire

Ganesan then took a swipe at Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) commissioner N Siva Subramaniam for not taking the pleas of the detainees seriously.

"We showed Siva Subramaniam how bad the food was and the next day when his report came out, he said the centre was (rated) five-star. How can you accept this?"

"It is not five-star, everybody is living in hell," he said. He went on to describe the terrible living conditions in the centre which includes maggot-infested rice, lack of medical care and counselling.

Other speakers in the forum include Bar Council honourary secretary Ragunath Kesavan, Suaram secretary general S Arutchelvan, Human Rights Watch researcher Sahr Muhammed Ally ( right ) and lawyer Kamarul Hisham.

According to the statistics released by human rights group Suaram, 712 have been detained in Simpang Renggam by July 2005 which is seven times more than those held in Kamunting under the Internal Security Act 1960.

On Thursday, a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch urging the government to repeal the EO was released and is set to be handed to parliamentarians on Monday.