Instead of continuing with the ISA arrests, the police should halt the ISA crackdown and release the eight reformasi activists immediately and unconditionally, especially as the “fairy tale” of the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai of a militant conspiracy for the violent overthrow of the government in the past two-and-half-years had been debunked by the peaceful and smooth Black 14 gathering at Suhakam headquarters in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday to present a memorandum on human rights to the Human Rights Commission.
Norian Mai had presented an affidavit to the habeas corpus hearings of five reformasi activists two days ago claiming that apart from the reasons for the ISA arrests given in his media conference on April 11, i.e. the militant conspiracy for the violent overthrow of the government, there were other reasons which could not be disclosed because they are against national security.
I do not wish to prejudge the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s attitude to Norian Mai’s latest claim in his affidavit, but it is clearly unacceptable in the court of public opinion and exposes the the total absence of reasonable grounds and acceptable evidence for the ISA arrests.
The police should stop concocting “fair tales”, release the eight Reformasi activists under the ISA and indict them in court for a public trial if there are evidence that they had committted offences against the law.
(20/4/2001)