Let public decide on ISA, says Perkasa
(MM) – Putrajaya should allow the public to determine if the Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 should be reintroduced, Malay rights group Perkasa said today when wading into the ongoing debate over the repealed security law.
Its president, Datuk Ibrahim Ali, said the Najib administration’s abolition of the law in 2011 had been a “populist move” sparked by the federal opposition’s portrayal of ISA as being a “draconian” and “oppressive” law, stressing that the decision over law that had allowed detention without trial should be made through a public referendum.
“Perkasa wants to propose to the government to hold a referendum to get the public’s stand about the return of ISA,” Ibrahim told reporters after Perkasa’s first supreme council meeting for this year.
“Actually the issue of security must be determined by the public, not by political parties, not the government of the day,” he later said.
Ibrahim claimed the country’s security forces now lack “effective instruments” to combat extremism and the police are feeling “restless” as they could not act on those who ignore “sensitive issues” following the ISA’s repeal.
