Innocence maintained* - Jewel

Foreign Affairs Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Shabery Cheek said unlike the detention laws in Guantanamo Bay, the ISA did not infringe upon human rights.

(Reported in The Star today. Read the whole report here)

And what was the basis of such a brainless allegation?

"There are pressures from the United Nations and (former US president) Bill Clinton to close Guantanamo Bay but we have never heard of our former Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister calling for the ISA to be abolished".

Oh, so we are safe! As long as no former PM or DPM calls for ISA to be abolished, it is not infringing human rights.

What a load of bollocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since when does detaining a person who is innocent (we still believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, rite? Rite?????) indefinitely without charging him/her in Court or allowing him/her to defend their innocence not an infringement of human rights? You dun need an LL.M in Internatinal Human Rights Law to figure that out!

But since i do hv such an LL.M, here is a short list of the rights infringed by the ISA:-

• Right to be informed of grounds of arrest;
• Right to take proceedings before a Court of law;
• Rights of a detained person to have access to the outside world;
• Rights of a detained person to be treated with dignity and respect;
• Rights of a detained person not to be subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
• Right to compensation for unlawful detention

The list is in no way exhaustive. And if you think i'm just plucking it all from the air, you can read about it in greater detail here.

*The 6th song from her 2nd album, Spirit, which happens to be my fav Jewel album so far!