Hartal ISA : International attention and intervention

Afterthought : Please send a copy of your letter to no.bn.no.isa@gmail.com so that I can keep track of the number of letters that have been sent. Thank you.

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Shortly after this, I will put up a post to briefly outline the Hartal ISA effort for your consideration and approval.

You will see that I have proposed as our first course of action efforts to draw international attention to, and where possible, international intervention, to the gross abuse of the ISA by the BN government.

That effort has already begun by the chain e-mail that many of you have already started to send out. Please continue to do so.

I have today sent out a letter to Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ( e-mail address :
CP@ohchr.org ), Asian Human Rights Commission ( e-mail address : ahrchk@ahrchk.org ) and Human Rights Watch ( e-mail address : hrwnyc@hrw.org ).

The same, in pdf, is linked below for your attention.

letter-to-human-rights-orgs1

I am also reproducing the full text of that letter below. I am urging each of you to write to these organisations to appeal for their intervention with regard to the abuse of the ISA by the BN. Please feel free to reproduce my letter, with or without amendment, as your own to these organisations.

People, let’s flood the international arena with the truth of how BN oppresses anak-anak Bangsa Malaysia!

Tell the world the truth!

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26^th September, 2008

1. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, E-mail: CP@ohchr.org
Palais Wilson,
52 rue des Pâquis, CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland.

2. Asian Human Rights Commission, Email: ahrchk@ahrchk.org

19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.

3. Human Rights Watch, Email: hrwnyc@hrw.org

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor,
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA.

Dear Sirs,

Preventive detention under the Malaysian Internal Security Act, 1960 against the Rule of Law and international human rights norms

____________________________________________________________

I refer to the above.

I am a Malaysian citizen.

I am concerned about the continued use of the Internal Security Act by the Government of Malaysia which allows the government to detain individuals without trial at the subjective discretion of the government on grounds of ‘national security’.

Persons detained are not tried of any crime in any court. They are put away in detention for renewable periods of two years on the say so of the Minister concerned ostensibly for being threats to national security. They are impeded from seeking recourse in the courts by legislation that has rendered judicial review virtually meaningless.

This has allowed the government to use the law in a manner and to ends not easily reconciled with the Rule of Law or universally accepted standards of human rights. It has allowed for detentions on the flimsiest of grounds for reasons that pertain to the political interests of the government. In 1987, a total of 106 individuals were detained under this law as they were perceived as being threatening to the incumbent administration. They included within their number leaders and members of the opposition, activists, and educators.

In the most recent spate of detentions, a representative of the media, an opposition member, and a prominent civil society activist and blogger, Raja Petra Kamarudin ( Malaysia Today, accessible at http://mt.m2day.org/2008/ ) were targeted. Whilst the media representative and the opposition member have since been released, Raja Petra Kamarudin Minister has since been made the subject of a 2-year detention order at the instance of the Home Minister.

Last December, civil society activists championing the cause of marginalized Malaysian Indians were targeted.

In 2001, 10 opposition political activists were targeted.

In total, there are currently 64 persons currently being detained for indefinite periods, some of whom have been in detention for more than 6 years. This has been allowed despite their not having been convicted of any crime. Families have been torn apart at the whim of the authorities and lives destroyed. Pleas for compassion have fallen on deafened ears.

I write to seek your intervention. I am concerned that in the current deteriorating political climate, with the government facing stiff challenge from the opposition, the law will be utilized to quell any democratic transition of power.

I urge you to take such action as you can.

I thank you for taking time out from your busy schedule to read this letter.

I am, as always, anak Bangsa Malaysia,

Posted in: People Power