Singapore
has rejected a call by former political prisoners to scrap a British colonial
law allowing detention without trial, saying it allows the government to fight
serious security threats.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said the former detainees were
held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for "subversive"
activities and not for their political beliefs.
The ministry's reaction, posted on its website Friday, came
after 16 former ISA detainees this month wrote a rare public message demanding
the abolition of the law after neighbouring Malaysia vowed to repeal similar
legislation.
The ISA has been denounced by critics in Singapore and
Malaysia as a tool to stifle dissent, but the city-state's home ministry said
the law was necessary to fight threats to national security such as terrorism.
One of the petitioners was Chia Thye Poh, who spent 26 years
in detention and was one of the world's longest-held political prisoners along
with South Africa's democracy icon and former president Nelson Mandela.
Chia was a socialist intellectual and opposition MP in the
1960s who was accused of being a communist subversive, a charge he firmly
denied.
"These 16 ex-detainees were not detained for their
political beliefs, but because they had involved themselves in subversive
activities which posed a threat to national security," the ministry said.
Nine of them were "actively involved" in communist
activities "committed to the violent overthrow of the constitutionally-elected
governments in Singapore and Malaysia" in the 1960s and 1970s, the
ministry said.
It said they infiltrated trade unions and student
organisations and instigated labour strikes and demonstrations to create
conditions necessary for a communist revolution.
Seven of them were involved in a "Marxist plot to
subvert and destabilise Singapore" in the 1980s, the ministry added.
The ISA, first implemented by Britain after World War II to
fight communist insurgents in colonies collectively known as Malaya, was
retained by Singapore after it became independent from the Malaysian federation
in 1965.
Calls for Singapore to abolish the ISA emerged after
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced earlier this month that his
government would repeal it.
Singapore said however the ISA remains relevant because of
threats from extremist groups and "self-radicalised" individuals.
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Source : AFP
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