Internal Security Act

This news article about abolishing the Internal Security Act(ISA) in Malaysia from ST Online caught my eye this morning.

For those of us who do not know what the ISA is, it came to be during our colonial times with the British and it gave and still gives our government the power to arrest and detain individuals without trial. For example, Mas Selamat bin Kastari was detained under the ISA. It is often criticized for giving the government too much power, including the authority to their throw political opponents into jail.

However, is the ISA all bad and irrelevant today? Honestly, I don't think so. With the media being irresponsible, fanning the flames and blowing issues out of proportion, individuals can be easily consumed by mob feelings which will threaten our internal security and thereby jeopardizing our nation's survival. I know I risk sounding like PAP's boy when I say this, but the truth is - Singapore has no natural resources to fall back on, and our international trade exceeds our gross domestic product by threefold. Nomura International has just ranked Singapore as the most vulnerable economy should the H1N1 influenza pandemic hit the world. We cannot allow disorder or unruliness in this city-state. But at what cost?

Take a look at videos of the recent AWARE extra general meetings from Razor TV for example. Here are the links: AWARE EGM (Part 1), and AWARE EGM (Part 2). What do you think? Should Singapore follow suit?