ISA only used as scare tactic, claims RPK

By Shannon Teoh

May 23, 2010

Raja Petra addresses a crowd of over 300 at the BPP Law School in London, May 22, 2010. — Picture by Danny Lim

LONDON, May 23 — Twice-detained without charge or trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA), controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin said yesterday that the law had outlived its usefulness.

Describing how it was tabled by then-deputy prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein in 1960 to combat communist terrorists (CT), he added that it was now simply a political tool used by the Barisan Nasional government.

Raja Petra, who writes for the Malaysia Today web portal, insisted that the idea that the ISA was a relic of the British colonial government was a myth.

“The ruling party asks why we complain when it is the British who introduced the ISA. But it was tabled in 1960 and Malaya gained independence in 1957,” the blogger, known widely by his initials RPK, told a packed hall at the BPP Law School.

In his first public appearance since his self-imposed exile over a year ago, he described how even opposition MPs then had backed the bill after assurances from Abdul Razak, who was also home minister, that it would only be used to combat the communist insurgency.

“But after the 1989 treaty in Haadyai, the communist party no longer exists. The emergency situation no longer exists. But we are still officially under the emergency because the ISA is an emergency law and the government can still use it even though it violates the constitution,” he said, referring to clauses which provide for fair trials to Malaysian citizens.

Arguing that the ISA was now only used to silence dissent and keep secrets, he quoted then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed as stating that the terrorist attacks on Sept 11, 2001 would not have happened if the US had a law like the ISA as it would have prevented such a crime.

“You use it to detain people before they commit a crime. We detain them while they are thinking about it. So it prevents you from thinking.

“In the past, the ISA stopped you from shooting and bombing. Today, it stops you from having thoughts. So you have a nation of robots,” he added.

He described how when he talked to many Malaysians, they would say that the government was “terrible” but when asked to vote for the opposition, they would reply, “Nanti kena ISA (we’ll be arrested under ISA).”

The fugitive blogger, who absconded from sedition and criminal defamation trials as well as a government appeal against his ISA release, which he claims were not being heard fairly, said the ISA had effectively planted “the politics of fear” in Malaysians.

He added that even the courts in Malaysia had from time to time declared that the ISA had outlived its usefulness, including his successful writ of habeas corpus against his own detention in 2001.

Raja Petra further described how during the 60-day ISA detention, one would be made to confess to crimes to demonstrate co-operation and then undergo a process of torture to “turn you over” and “abandon your cause.”

“We confessed to everything — including the Kennedy assassination,” he joked, referring to the murder of the former US president John F. Kennedy in 1963.

He said that some of those who were converted would become Trojan horses, making specific mention of former PKR MP Zulkifli Noordin, who until he was recently sacked, was often at odds with other Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

“They are put there to create controversy and remain as thorns in the flesh of the opposition,” he said.

Hosted by the Solicitors’ International Human Rights Group (SIHRG), Raja Petra was greeted by a crowd of over 300 Malaysians, some of whom had to stand for the duration of the two-hour talk and question-and-answer session.

RPK ?

This fella is a bloody liar, nobody had ever said or will say 'will be arrested under ISA' if we ask them to vote for opposition. Do not exegerate just tell the truth. You only accept 40% of what RPK says, the rest are all lies an exegeration, the thing that he says is influenced by his hatred and personal grudge against the police and the BN government, whom he believes has done great injustice to him, as such we cannot accept everything he says as the truth.

What utter rubbish are you spewing ? If the ISA is draconian he would have been inside Kamunting by now and now he is saying ISA is now used as a scare tactic , so what are you afraid of if the ISA is only used as a scare tactic ? The more you hear about this ass spewing rubbish the more damage he is doing for PR cause people nowadays are not stupid like dogs anyway and dogs are smarter than he thinks , maybe smarter and more intelligent than him . Maybe its good for BN that he is showing his half baked and premature intelligence .

"Arguing that the ISA was now only used to silence dissent and keep secrets, "

How many opposition politicians are being held under ISA in Kamunting ? how many RPK ?
If the ISA is being used to silence dissent dont you think Kamunting would have been filled to the brim instead of housing terrorists , forgerers of passports and i/cs ( immigration and nrd blokes ! ) If it is so , the whole Perak circus clowns would have been there today since Kamunting is in Perak . What a big baloney ! .
And what secrets ? are you talking about ? since you are the one who has been receiving secrets and classified information . Does that make you a possible spy or a traitor ? or a foreign espionage officer under the payroll of some democrazy bankrupt nation listed under 163 in my previous article ?

“In the past, the ISA stopped you from shooting and bombing. Today, it stops you from having thoughts. So you have a nation of robots,

So if that is the case don't you think your article calling and referring to all Malaysian Chinese as dogs are highly defamatory and slanderous and very RACIST just like the Perkasa idiot should have put you under ISA ? Well it didn't , and it didn't stop your dirty and confused mind from becoming a robot . Yeah everyone living in Malaysia is a robot except you the great Raja Putar Kongkek . Pordah ! What a scum enjoying life in London with your wife and having orgies with your mind with all those Mat Sallehs in threesome , foursome while your son rots here in a Malaysian jail and you preaching shit and baloney in London !