ANGKATAN Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim) menggesa pihak kerajaan mempercepatkan tindakan bagi proses penggubalan undang-undang baru bagi menggantikan Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri atau ISA. Ini bagi memastikan supaya kegiatan protes terhadap ISA oleh sebahagian dari anggota masyarakat di negara ini, sebagaimana yang telah berlaku kelmarin, dapat dielakkan dari berterusan.
Antara tindakan segera yang boleh dilakukan oleh pihak kerajaan bagi mempercepatkan proses penggubalan undang-undang baru menggantikan ISA ini ialah dengan menubuhkan satu suruhanjaya khas yang dianggotai oleh tokoh-tokoh dari pelbagai sektor masyarakat, meliputi pihak kerajaan, pembangkang dan pertubuhan bukan kerajaan menyertainya.
Pihak kerajaan tidak harus memandang ringan protes-protes yang dilakukan oleh sebahagian anggota masyarakat ini sebagaimana yang terjadi kelmarin kerana ia merupakan manifestasi bantahan terhadap perlaksanaan ISA yang dilihat telah banyak melanggar batas-batas hak asasi warganegara dari kerangka perlembagaan. Sehubungan dengan itu juga, Abim ingin meminta pihak keselamatan membebaskan mereka yang ditahan pada perhimpunan kelmarin dengan kadar yang segera.
Abim juga ingin meminta orang ramai supaya memberi peluang dan masa kepada pihak kerajaan, di bawah kepimpinan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak, yang telah membuat kenyataan rasmi untuk membuat kajian semula terhadap akta ini, menyempurnakan janjinya. Ketenteraman dan kesejahteraan masyarakat terbanyak hendaklah dipelihara oleh semua pihak.
Abim ingin terus mempertegaskan sikapnya pada sebelum ini iaitu ISA hendaklah dihapuskan kerana ia bertentangan dengan prinsip hak kemanusian dari perspektif agama Islam. Oleh itu, ISA hendaklah diganti dengan satu undang-undang baru yang lebih adil sejajar dengan tuntutan agama dan perlembagaan Malaysia.
Muhamad Razak Idris
Presiden
Abim
S.S.Seelan says
I have always maintained that instead of trying to abolish the ISA (which may take a period of time), the immediate concern of all peace-loving Malaysians should be to marshall up support for the abolition of the dreaded but little-known (until you are detained, that is) Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code which permits the police to detain a suspect (and you can interpret that as almost anyone) for a maximum of 15 days.
[…] During their days in detention, the detainees will be just forgotten until their remand period ends whereupon the suspects will be taken to court to be detained further [if their remand of a maximum of 14 days has not been exceeded]. The suspects are taken before a magistrate who authorises the detention. It would do the detainee no good to complain to the magistrate. Many magistrates are young and inexperienced and in awe of police ffficers and they will invariably grant the [remand] detention asked for by the police. This is especially true in the rural areas where the magistrates and police interact as “adik beradik” and the suspect has a fat chance of having his [or her] complaint being heard.
Alternatively, if a suspect is brazen enough to complain to the magistrate, then he [or she] will have hell to pay once he [or she] returns to the police station. Quite apart from that, this is also known as the money-making section and a boon to corrupt police officers. Many suspects are simply detained until someone pays up for their release.
Hundreds of suspects are detained under 117 throughout the country and many of them simply rot in the lockup during the duration of their remand period. And it is happening daily. The ISA is invoked only once in a while. But I am not suggesting that it should not be abolished. I just feel that Section 117 detentions are a more pressing concern and we should galvanise public opinion to abolish this section or have the period of detention reduced […].
Even Singapore, famed for its draconian laws, did away with this form of detention almost 20 years ago. In this respect, the mass media may start the ball rolling by conducting a poll amongst the suspects who were detained under 117 and ask to what extent is the period of detention utilised productively by the police. You will be surprised at the extent that this section is abused in curtailing the individual’s freedom.