Saturday September 13, 2008 MYT 5:40:38 PM

Bar Council to have EGM on ISA (updated)

By ZULKIFLI ABD RAHMAN

KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council will hold an emergency Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Sept 20 to discuss what it called a serious national crisis regarding the arrests of three people under the Internal Security Act (ISA) on Friday.

The meeting, which would be held at Wisma MCA at 10am, would discuss the violation of the rule of law, Bar Council chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said.

She added the Council had set up a legal team, headed by council member Rajpal Singh with about 25 state bar chairmen and representatives, to provide legal aid to the detainees and anyone else who might be arrested later.

Ambiga said the ISA was not a solution to any perceived threat to peace, adding that the three people were arrested in connection to matters that were already in the public domain.

She added that the use of the ISA, far from relieving any perceived tension, had instead created far more uneasiness and unhappiness among right-thinking people in Malaysia.

“We have sufficient provisions in the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code that allow for police investigations in these instances.

“If there are perceived offences, charge these people in open court and give them their fundamental right to defend themselves. Our nation and our people don’t deserve the ISA,” she told reporters Saturday at the Bar Council headquarters after chairing a meeting on the issue.

Ambiga was commenting on the arrest of Malaysia Today news portal editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin, Selangor senior executive councillor Teresa Kok and Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng on Friday under Section 73(1) of the ISA.

She also appealed to the Home Ministry to withdraw the show-cause letters issued to Sin Chew Daily, The Sun and Suara Keadilan for breaching guidelines set by the Government.

To a question, Ambiga said she was not aware of any news whether any of the Bar Council’s members may be detained under the ISA later.

Immediate past Bar president Yeoh Yang Poh said it was sad to learn that the Government deemed it necessary to deprive the people of their freedom without going through the due process of law after 50 years of nation building.

Hendon Mohamed, past president of the Bar Council, said she was shocked that the ISA was still used for purposes of convenience, and urged the Government to consider allowing itself to become more open and let the people speak up.

Another past Bar president Sulaiman Abdullah said the country was not facing a major crisis, yet a law that was supposed to overcome a major crisis was being used.

“If the Government insists in continuing to use the ISA, the Act should be used with safeguards written into it, such as that any executive action on the ISA must be subject to judicial scrutiny,” he added.

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