THE Government's power to detain an individual without a trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA) is subject to important checks and balances, Minister for Law K. Shanmugam said yesterday.

His explanation about the safeguards surrounding the often-criticised preventive detention law came in a speech to a meeting of the New York State Bar Association's International Section.

In it, he also noted that many countries faced a similar dilemma of how to deal with terrorists.

Shanmugam: Our approach to the law has worked

By Zakir Hussain, Political Correspondent

FACING an audience of mainly American lawyers who have been meeting here for almost a week now, Law Minister K. Shanmugam posed some direct questions at a dialogue yesterday.

'If you asked any Singaporean lady in this room: she will have not too much concern about taking the metro or taxi or bus at any time, to any location,' he said. 'You can walk downtown, to any area, at any time, without fear or concern. Many parents will let their children under 10 take public transport, on their own. Children move about freely - as children should. There are no slums, no 'no-go' areas, no deprived inner city areas. More than 90 per cent of the population own their homes.'

And the reason why this is so, he told members of the New York State Bar Association International Section, is Singapore has strict laws and it enforces them.

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