3 days ago was Raja Petra's birthday.
It feels like forever ago when I discovered in the middle of the night of Teresa Kok's and Tan Hoon Cheng's arrests under ISA. The fear, the dread of what more was to come, the feelings of outrage have not left me.
Now both the women have been released. One is keeping a low profile, the other has just received death threats against her and her family. The irony: the former was 'kept under protection', the latter is now in danger.
Take a moment, I ask you, to think about what the Internal Security Act (Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri) means in our country. It gives one man the right to throw another man away for the rest of his life. One signature, all it takes. No judgement, no trial. No burden of proof. No way to defend yourself, no way to prove yourself innocent. All it takes is the cruel intent of one man, one government who does not like any opposition. Or truth.
Think of the Hindraf Heroes who were fighting for an entire race, against a mindset ingrained for half a century. K. Kengadhadran, M. Manoharan, P. Uthayakumar, T. Vasantha Kumar, K. Ganabathi Rao, a nation of people grieve for you as you languish in a detention centre you have no right being in. It heartens me to hear from Marina Lee's account of her visit to Kamunting that they have not chained your spirit. Makkal Sakthi fights on.
Think of Operasi Lalang. The entirely wrong group of people were arrested. The culprits ran free. Malaysia's next prime minister (if things go as he plans) najib tun razak led a massive Malay rally. Fears of violence abound. Of course, he washed his hands of any wrongdoing. People like Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh were thrown into Kamunting.
Ask your parents. Anyone who lived through that era of fear, of blatant unapologetic injustice. Ask about Lim Guan Eng, who was thown into jail under the Sedition Act, another act which gives the government power to arrest as they wish. Yet now Lim Guan Eng is Chief Minister of Penang.
Did you know Anwar Ibrahim too has been arrested under the Internal Security Act? So too has he been Deputy Prime Minister of the country. Accused and jailed unfairly for sodomy and treason. Opposition Leader and Prime Minister in-waiting.
But let us think of Raja Petra Kamarudin. He faces detention for the rest of his life under charges of being 'a threat to national security'. Let me show you what he has written, in one of his last articles before being locked away:
Till we meet again, if we do meet again, take care and keep the flame burning. There is still a long fight ahead of us in bringing reforms to this beloved country of ours.
RPK
we will not forget
stay strong
we will not forget
stay strong
Labels: Malaysia