ISA amendments delayed

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 24 — The amendments to the Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 will be tabled and debated at the next sitting of the Dewan Rakyat, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein (picture).
He said the ISA (Amendments) Bill could not be tabled at the recently concluded parliamentary sitting as there would not have been enough time to debate on it.
“It is certainly the responsibility of the government to table any amendments to the ISA 1960 in Parliament immediately when all aspects of the Act had been studied and the necessary procedures complied with.
“However, I feel it’s better for the amendments to be tabled and debated straight away at the next Dewan Rakyat sitting,” he said in a statement, here today.
Furthermore, he said, the public discussions on the amendments had been successfully carried out and there were requests from opposition members of parliament that they should also be involved in the subsequent public discussions.
Hishammuddin said that following the public meetings and discussions with the target groups, the Law Review Technical Committee was in the final stages of studying all the views and suggestions presented during the sessions before the amendments were tabled in Parliament.
He said he wanted all the studies to take into account the five main issues that had been identified, namely, the power of the minister; duration of detention; the rights of and treatment given to the detainees; public perception that the enforcement of the act was purely for political purposes; and detention without trial. — Bernama