An Umno minister today drew distinctions among a few preventive laws used by the government under the regimes of the different prime ministers.

In his blog posting today, Salleh Said Keruak claimed the defunct Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA), which was used in three crackdowns in the 1980s and 1990s, were meant to retain the power of the government.

However, the other preventive laws used under the current administration, Salleh said, were mainly done to address national security issues.

"There are parties accusing the current administration. To prove the point, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), Preventive of Terrorism Act (Pota) and the National Security Council Act were mentioned as proof that this is an undemocratic country," he said...