Justice Abdul Malek Ahmad allowed the stay until the matter is heard before a full Federal Court panel next Monday.
The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai should explain why the police have such a strong objection to the production of the two ISA detainees in court, that the decision of the Shah Alam High Court judge, Justice Mohd Hishammuddin Mohd Yunus ordering the two ISA detainees to be produced before the court for their habeas corpus application today had to be opposed at all costs?
Is the Police really convinced that the production of Ghani and Gobalakrishnan in the Shah Alam High Court would constitute an unacceptable threat to national security, law and order?
At a time when at least nine robbers who staged daring hold-ups around the Klang Valley recently have been found to be policemen - and two of them are chief inspectors - public credibility is being strained beyond belief for the police to claim that compliance with a judge’s order to produce the two ISA detainees in court would totally compromise public security, law and order.
For this reason, I would urge the Inspector-General of Police to consult with the Attorney-General to both withdraw the objection and appeal to the Federal Court and to agree to the production of the two detainees in the Shah Alam High Court to satisfy the Malaysian public that the police are not abusing the process of the court to “cover-up” any human rights abuses against the two ISA detainees.
In this connection, the police must explain its refusal to grant family access to Parti Keadilan vice president Tian Chua; Keadilan supreme council member N. Gobalakrishnan, Penang Keadilan Youth exco member Abdul Ghani Harun, and social activist Hishamuddin Rais although they are starting their fifth week of detention.
The Home Ministry should be asked to present a Ministerial statement in the current meeting of Parliament giving a full list of the 108 ISA detainees during Operation Lalang in 1987, stating their dates of arrest and first access to family members - and I am sure that there were not a single one who had been denied family access by the third week of arrest.
Norian Mai should explain why the ISA is being implemented in the harshest and most inhuman manner against the current batch of detainees.
(8/5/2001)