It’s really funny how unremarkably the announcement came. The government yesterday put out a tender for companies to help filter the Internet. Now, in places like China and Iran, this happens quite regularly. But in Malaysia — well, there’s a first that should go into the Malaysia Book of Records. In this day and age, it’s a rare regime that pretends to be democratic and yet maintains a law that allows the government to throw anyone it likes into jail for as long as it likes, without any accountability at all. Rarer still are regimes who do this and who, rather than slowly loosening the chains of their people, only tighten them further. The people of Malaysia have spoken quite clearly: they want more freedom, not less.
The government dismisses calls for the abolition — and sometimes even amendment — of the Internal Security Act as unfounded, because the ISA is necessary to preserve national harmony. If people were to be able to do as they please, and speak their minds, this logic goes, then the country would collapse. Riots would break out and terrorists would have free rein. Curiously, virtually every democracy with preventive detention laws has controls over how long someone can be held for. Often, after a certain period has passed, the government must either charge the detainee with a crime, or let them free.
In Malaysia, even though in theory someone can only be held for two years, the government has complete freedom to renew the detention order — and it is accountable to nobody. The government pretends we are democratic in spite of this law; it is our own kind of democracy, they say. But democracy is about more than voting. They had elections in Soviet Russia; they have elections in North Korea. Hardly anybody pretends these countries, which have stripped the electoral process of all the freedoms it requires to work, constitute democracies. Democracy needs information to work. The people who vote need to be able to understand the issues that concern the government, and to hear different points of view about how to tackle these issues. If you know nothing about who you are voting for, why bother voting?
It is true that letting people talk and listen has its risks. We must bring to justice people who spread a message of hate, and who plot against our country. But we must also accord those we suspect of these crimes their right to due process. If the government can toss any terrorist it likes into the lockup for as long as it pleases, it will slowly and surely expand the definition of terrorism to encompass those who merely disagree with the ruling regime. We have already seen this happen; how many ISA detainees have truly posed a threat to our country? Many of these supposed terrorists at this very moment sit in Parliament, on both sides of the benches, helping govern this country!
Anyone who has properly considered the issue of the ISA will view it as an untenable law. At the very least, it needs amendment so it complies with the same preventive detention laws used by real democracies. But I believe we would be better off abolishing the ISA, and compel the government to properly charge people in court for their crimes, instead of allowing the government to do whatever it likes to suspected criminals; no government should act as judge and jury. But rather than begin repairing our broken democracy, the government is intent on destroying it altogether. The people are tired of sham democracy and rigged elections, and they have used the internet over the last ten years to make this known. Nothing has done more for our democracy in living memory than the development of the internet. And now the government is set on censoring the Internet, to ensure only the opinions it likes will be available online. In name, the government merely wants to block access to pornography and websites which promote hate speech.
Very stressful, hasn't it been in today's march against the ISA? Stressful for both the government and the protestors. However, the organizers of the protest have assessed today's anti-ISA staged rallies as a success, and they are right. They have successfully captured the nation's and international attention that the Malaysian people are against the government's misuse of the ISA. And the ar$eluck for the governmet is that this would be the general impression even if only 25% of the people supported the anti-ISA movement. Worse, the attempted police suppression of the protesors has only martyr-ised each and every one of the participants ... exactly the outcome the Pakatan leaders would have wanted. The government might have wished the protest rallies hadn't ocurred but alas, it did. In my opinion, the ministers (PM, Home and Information) handled the protests abysmally.
So why has the government chosen the option that could only aggravate and magnify the public dramas and political consequences of the anti-ISA rallies, unwittingly lending the Pakatan-led protestors far greater attention than would have been the case if there was no police/FRU interference. Sometimes I wonder how stupid the relevant ministers had been to adopt such a counter-productive (for them) tactic - but more often that that, I wonder whether the Police had sinisterly, sinuously and successfully sold those dumbos the hardline approach ... obviously to enhance their own (police) importance and to suck the (so-called) political masters (or more likely, pundee morons) into total dependence on the men in blue.
A total of 438 people were arrested as part of a massive police crackdown on an anti-Internal Security Act rally today in the city centre. Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohd Sabtu Osman told Malaysiakini that 435 of those detained were Malay, while 37 were women. He also revealed 38 were juveniles, who are below the aged of 18. According to him, the arrests, which began as early as 7am today, were made under section 105 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) “to prevent illegal acts” from taking place. Most of them have been taken to Cheras police district for questioning where lawyers were said to have been barred from meeting the detainees.
The Kuala Krai PAS MP, Dr.Hatta Ramli had emerged from the mosque after prayers to address about 2,000 protesters gathered outside. Hatta said he was about to deliver a short speech before asking supporters to proceed towards the Sogo shopping complex when police moved into the crowd and forcibly dragged him to the ground from behind. "I almost lost my balance and fell over on the supporters," he said. In the melee, Hatta's collared T-shirt was ripped, exposing his torso. "We were taken aback because they came from behind and there was no warning whatsoever (for us to disperse)," said Hatta, who was not arrested. "But this is just part of our struggle, we managed to proceed to Sogo," he added.
Pakatan Rakyat believes it has succeeded in holding a mass rally to call for the abolition of the Internal Security Act (ISA) despite what they described as “excessive force” used by the police to crush an event which turn the country’s capital into a warzone. The opposition pact’s leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today police reaction to the peaceful protest was “unwarranted” as hundreds have been arrested while demonstrators, including him, were teargassed and fired with chemical-laced water but maintained that they prevailed in “proving the point.”
“(Datuk Seri) Najib Razak said ISA opposers should give opinion instead of demonstrating but apparently he has not heard of the hundreds of suggestions and testimonials of those tortured while being detained under the ISA,” Anwar told a press conference held at PAS headquarters amidst an on-going street battle just outside the building.He said letter had been sent to the prime minister requesting a meeting be held between PR leaders and him to discuss, among many, the issue of ISA in which today’s rally would have been called off should Najib respond. He did not.
PR and rally organisers, the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI) then resorted to holding a rally at various points in the capital and planned to march towards the National Palace to hand over a resolution to the King but failed after police and riot squads blocked off all major routes leading to the palace.
Salahuddin Ayub, vice-president of PAS, said even though they did not manage to send the resolution to the King, he still considered today’s event a success as it had managed to mobilise some 20,000 participants. More than 150 protestors have been arrested and taken to the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters. Another PAS vice president, Datuk Mahfuz Omar who was among those present at the press conference demanded the release of all detainees. He also said the party has prepared a legal team to handle their arrest.
GMI chairman and rally chief coordinator Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said although Najib had promised to review the law, the group have longed believe that the ISA, which allows detention without trial, should be abolished altogether.
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