Megat Junid's family hopes Tun Mahathir's ISA claim 'a slip of the tongue'

Family members of the late Tan Sri Megat Junid Megat Ayub are hoping that it was just a slip of the tongue when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed that the former deputy home minister was fully responsible for signing detention orders under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

Megat Junid's eldest son, Datuk Megat Fairouz Junaidi, said it was very odd for such powers to be delegated to a deputy minister without the knowledge of Dr Mahathir himself as the then home minister.

"We are hopeful that Tun Mahathir, who was very much respected by our late father, had a slip-of-the-tongue moment when he said those words.

"If he (Megat Junid) did sign those detention orders, it must have been done upon approval and within the knowledge of Tun Mahathir. In fact, there is a big possibility that it was done upon instruction from Tun Mahathir himself as the then home minister and prime minister," he told a press conference here Tuesday.

Megat Fairouz, representing his siblings and mother Puan Sri Faizah Shuaib, said this in response to a blog post which stated that Dr Mahathir had denied that he was the one who signed detention orders under the ISA.

The blog post also stated that Dr Mahathir admitted that even after taking over the post of home minister from Tun Musa Hitam in 1986, he had delegated the powers to detain any individuals under the ISA to Megat Junid, who served as deputy home minister for 11 years.