Nazri admits ISA used on political foes

The law minister tells the Dewan Rakyat that was why the government has inserted a safeguard in the Securities Offences Bill. 

(Free Malaysia Today) – The Internal Security Act was at times used to crack down on political dissidents, admitted Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz.

The de facto law minister told the Dewan Rakyat this in his winding up speech on the Scurities Offences (Special Measures) Bill 2012.

“The then deputy prime minister Tun Abdul Razak had promised in 1960 that the ISA will only be used against the communists but it was not the case all the time,” he added.

Abdul Razak, who became the second prime minister of Malaysia, is the father of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Nazri said this was the reason why the government, under Najib, had qualified the new Bill by inserting a provision that nobody could be detained for their political beliefs.

In the past, the government had denied using the controversial security law to throw its critics behind bars, claiming that arrests were done to uphold national security.

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