Malaysia may use harsh security law on Indian protestors: PM

Malaysia threatened on Tuesday to use its Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for years of detention without trial, against street protesters.

“The ISA is a preventive measure to spare the nation from untoward incidents that can harm the prevailing peace and harmony and create all sorts of adverse things,” official news agency Bernama quoted Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as saying.

“The ISA will be there. When it is appropriate to use it, it will be used,” he said.

More than 10,000 ethnic Indians staged the minority community’s biggest anti-government protest at the weekend to complain of racial discrimination. Two weeks earlier, another crowd of about 10,000 people rallied in the capital to demand electoral reform. They were the biggest street demonstrations in a decade.