Section 8

This morning Raja Petra Kamarudin, better known as RPK and editor of the ultra-popular news portal Malaysia-Today, is supposed to have a court hearing regarding his ISA detention by the police on Sep 12. When he was detained, Section 73 of ISA was used, which grants power to police officers for detention, but allows judicial review by the court. The court can ascertain if the detainee is indeed a threat to national security and therefore the detention lawful or not.

Came the shocking news to RPK lawyers this morning  that the Home Minister has signed the detention order under Section 8 of ISA, which grants the minister detention power for up to two years, but does NOT allow judicial review. It means there is no longer ground to review in court if the detention of RPK is lawful or not.

[ISA, especially with Section 8 provisions, is a law against natural justice. I have dealt with this point in separate blog posts.]

It now seems to indicate that there was indeed no grounds to detain RPK under the pretext of national security threat. The minister knew about it, and was nervous if the court hearing the case would throw out the police detention order and set RPK free. Hence his intervention at the 11th hour! What a travesty of justice. Like the prime minister Dollah, if the minister has got ‘ball’, let both sides argue it out in court and let justice prevail, either way. Now we can confirm that “detain-you-for-your-safety” minister Syed Hamid Albar has got no ball, like his boss Dollah.