Author of Malaysia's notorious Internal Security Act died in
Britain- report
The Associated Press
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Reginald Hugh Hickling, a British lawyer,
author and professor who drafted Malaysia's notorious Internal
Security Act used to detain scores of suspected criminals without
trial, has died, local media reported Wednesday.
Hickling, 86, died after a short illness on Feb. 11 and is survived
by his wife Beryl, three children and 12 grandchildren, the New
Straits Times reported Wednesday.
Hickling served as the Assistant Attorney General in Malaysia's
Sarawak in 1950, then a British colony, and later assisted in the
drafting of the Malayan, now Malaysian, constitution for the
country's independence from Britain in 1957.
He maintained in his writings and interviews that when he drafted
the Internal Security Act in 1960, he did not foresee that the law
could be arbitrarily used to detain suspects.
The law, which allows indefinite detention without trial, was used
briefly against former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
following disagreements with his mentor, former leader Mahathir
Mohamad.
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Other prominent victims have been opposition politicians, rights
activists and suspected Islamic militants.
Currently, some 30 people are being held under the Act, mostly
suspected Islamic militants allegedly linked to regional terror
group Jemaah Islamiyah and alleged to have been plotting attacks to
create a region pan-Islamic state and overthrow the
government.
The same law has been used in neighboring Singapore to detain
terror suspects, which was formerly part of Malaysia.
"I could not imagine then that the time would come when the power
of detention, carefully and deliberately interlocked with Article
149 of the Constitution, would be used against political opponents,
welfare workers and others dedicated to nonviolent, peaceful
activities," he wrote in 1989, according to the New Straits
Times.
Article 149 of the Malaysian Constitution stipulates "special
powers" for parliament against "subversion, organized violence, and
acts and crimes prejudicial to the public" and powers during a
declared emergency.
International rights groups have denounced the Act, which they say
has been widely abused by authorities in both Malaysia and
Singapore.
--
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/28/asia/AS-OBIT-Malaysia-Security-Law-Author.php
