Salleh: Mahathir detained many for telling the ‘truth’

Sacked Umno Batu Kawan deputy divisional chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan and lawyer Matthias Chang will go on trial and will have a chance to defend themselves for telling the "truth".

KUALA LUMPUR: Minister for Communication and Multimedia Salleh Said Keruak, said today that many dissidents and critics were arrested too during Mahathir Mohamad’s 22 years as Prime Minister and were detained under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) without trial.

In 2001, he recalled, tens of jailed Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s supporters were detained without trial on allegations that they were terrorists. “Six were made to serve two years under detention without trial,” said Salleh. “Later, the Court ruled that they were not terrorists and that their detention was illegal.”

“Sacked Umno Batu Kawan deputy divisional chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan and lawyer Matthias Chang will go on trial and will have a chance to defend themselves for telling the ‘truth’.”

It has not been established whether the duo was telling the truth, stressed Salleh, “so let the Court decide. Anyway, Mahathir of all people should know that truth is subjective. Just because one told the truth, it does not mean that no laws were broken.”

Salleh was commenting on a press conference on Monday during which the former Prime Minister condemned the arrest and detention of Khairuddin and Chang pending trial under the Penal Code and Sosma.

The Federal Minister from Sabah, a strong supporter of embattled Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, feels that Mahathir needs to be reminded of the many times that people had simply been arrested during his time for telling the truth.

Lawyer Marina Yusoff, for example, was convicted and sentenced under the Sedition Act in 2000 for telling the truth and the judge ruled that just because she told the truth, it does not mean that she was not guilty of a crime, recalled Salleh. “Under the Sedition Act, telling the truth can actually get you jailed, the Court reminded the defence.”

Mahathir, during the press conference, said that arresting and detaining Khairuddin and Chang for telling the truth was an abuse and disrespect for the law.