On this day twenty years ago

On this day twenty years ago I have had the occasion of attending a seminar in conjunction with World Human Rights Day organised by the Bar Council. The President of the Bar Council then was YM Raja Aziz Addruce. Half of the seats at the packed ballroom of the Federal Hotel were occupied by members of the legal fraternity. And the rest were occupied by people like myself, any Tom Dick and Harry and the family members of the Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees including the families of Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh, who were arrested during the October 1987 Lalang Operation. I can still vividly recall former Lord President, Tun Salleh Abas and former Auditor General, Tan Sri Ahmad Noordin Zakaria were among the crowd.

There was one classic expression uttered by Param Cumaraswamy in his keynote address that has been dwelling in my head eversince until today. Param, who is a senior member of the bar and also the former president of the Bar Council, said, "Politics is a profession that does not require any qualification at all. To be a doctor one has to study medicine. To be a lawyer one has to study law. But politics requires no qulification and in fact standing second in ranking after the oldest profession in the world".

The utterance of the above words by Param was not because of his dislike for politicians but in reference to the blatant and abusive manner a politician in the person of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had used the ISA to detain innocent Malaysians in October 1987 code-named 'Operasi Lalang'. And not too long thereafter he emasculated the judiciary by illegitimately dismissing Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President and judge of the Supreme Court on 8 August 1988.

Today, exactly 20 years after that seminar, nothing much have changed if not worse insofar as ISA is concern. It was only two days ago that Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said his government is not going to amend let alone abolish the ISA. He unequivocally told one of its coalition components, People Progressive Party (PPP), to freely quit the coalition if its (PPP) stay in the coalition is conditional upon amendment of the ISA, which the government is not going to assent.

In the world's human rights ranking index 2008, Malaysia is number 137th. The use of ISA to clampdown on political dissidents and social activists or to silence any vocal but legitimate criticism has not improved. A journalist doing legitimate reporting was arrested under ISA on reason of her own safety. Even for the past several days the police has been arresting those who campaign for a change by riding on bicycles across the country. ISA is use not as weapon of defence but weapon of attack.

Since 1988, twenty annual human rights days have been celebrated. But abuse of human rights continues unabated. Somehow I am not surprised because none of the United Nations human rights documents or covenants have ever been ratified by Malaysia even though Malaysia is a member of the United Nations and a party to those covenants.

Wawasan 2020 is the catchword used by Malaysia to achieving industrialised state and civil community. But with ISA continue to be around on the statute book, we are going with reverse gear. Democracy is just a dream. Change or reform therefore is a must.