Attorney General Gani Patail is keeping mum on what sort of new laws would be drafted to replace the Internal Security Act and several other Emergency laws, and what sort of timeline, if any, he had been given to follow by Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Najib had on Thursday proposed to repeal the oppressive preventive detention laws and create two new ones. Since then, a dispute has erupted with Minister in PM's Department Nazri Aziz saying that the earliest a paper on the new legislation could be brought to Parliament was next year. However, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin insists it could be done before the end of this year.
Feeling the pressure, Gani refused to comment.
“I have to sit down and work. Let me work first,” he told reporters who hounded him on Monday.
Ominous silence
While the ISA has long been dreaded for allowing the government to persecutive political rivals with indefinite detention without trial, there has been little public celebration at Najib's repeal proposal.
This silence is ominous and a warning to Najib of how thin he has stretched credibility with Malaysians, after having disappointed them many times before in the past especially with the New Economic Model and the recent July 9 Bersih rally fiasco.
Critics have accused him of giving the repeals with one hand, and taking back with the other any liberalisation due to the two new laws, which could turn out to be even more ham-fisted in nature, although couched in modern language.
However, not all are happy with the repeals proposal. Hardliners within the PM's Umno party are uneasy to let go of the ISA, which they have abused for decades to retain their hold on the federal government. Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali even said the new laws must have the same "spirit" of the ISA.
- Malaysia Chronicle
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.