When might is right
Not only Malaysians but many in the west — in particular the United States, Britain, Australia, etc. — also oppose Malaysia’s detention without trial law. They make their opposition very clear and are vey open and vocal about it. Western counties also offer funding to Malaysian NGOs and movements that oppose laws such as the ISA, OSA, Sedition Act, etc. — draconian laws that violate your civil liberties and fundamental human rights, not to mention the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
How the CIA managed to kill long-wanted Al-Qaeda mastermind Al Awlaki through ‘marriage plot’
(ANI) – The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) managed to kill one of its most wanted terrorists in the world, Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al Awlaki in a drone strike attack in September 2011, through a fake marriage plot with a Croatian woman.
Al Awlaki was linked with 2009’s Fort Hood shooting and the foiled airplane underwear bomb that happened later in the same year.
The devilish plot to kill al Awlaki revolved around a Danish CIA-Al Qaeda double agent, who was paid 250,000 dollars by the CIA in 2009 to find and deliver a European wife to the terrorist mastermind, the New York Post reports.
According to the paper, Morten Storm, the double agent, said that in 2010 he found a Croatian woman named Aminah through a Facebook page setup for fans of al Awlaki, and used the money he got from the CIA to play matchmaker, and through a series of bizarre and chilling videos, text messages, and emails, he helped Aminah entice al Awlaki.
Storm said that apparently Aminah’s wooing worked because al Awlaki accepted the proposal in a video of his own, saying “If you can live in difficult conditions, don’t mind loneliness, and can live with restrictions on your communications with others, that is great.”
Storm revealed that with the courtship done, al Awlaki invited Aminah to meet up with him in Yeman whereupon the CIA was planning to kill the couple in a drone strike. He was subsequently killed in a CIA drone strike in September 2011.
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When I participated in the anti-ISA demonstration in front of the Kamunting Detention Centre in June 2003 (see pictures below), little did I know that five years later I was going to suffer my second detention without trial and spend time in the very place I was demonstrating against.
Malaysians are outraged about Malaysia’s detention without trial law that has been around since 1960 and saw an estimated 10,000 Malaysians picked up and locked away merely because they oppose the government and thus are seen as a ‘threat to national security’.
Yes, anyone who opposes the government is considered a threat to national security and thus loses his/her right to a fair trial. They are no longer innocent until proven guilty. They are considered guilty and once they are locked away they need to prove their innocence if they want to see freedom.
Of course, it is harder for you to prove your innocence than for the government to prove your guilt. So the onus is on you to convince the government as to why you should not be locked up. The government need not prove why you deserve to be locked up.
Not only Malaysians but many in the west — in particular the United States, Britain, Australia, etc. — also oppose Malaysia’s detention without trial law. They make their opposition very clear and are vey open and vocal about it. Western counties also offer funding to Malaysian NGOs and movements that oppose laws such as the ISA, OSA, Sedition Act, etc. — draconian laws that violate your civil liberties and fundamental human rights, not to mention the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
We must certainly commend the west for condemning the Malaysian government and for financing NGOs and movements that fight for civil liberties and fundamental human rights.
No one should be punished for any perceived crime until first allowed a fair and just trial in an open court of law and is confirmed guilty beyond any shadow of doubt — and even then only after the different levels of appeal and pardon have been exhausted. To punish someone otherwise is unjust.
It needs western countries to knock some sense into countries like Malaysia. If not we will never see justice in developing countries. Asians, Africans, Middle Easterners, etc., do not understand the meaning of justice, fair and just trial, civil liberties, fundamental human rights, and whatnot. This concept is foreign to them. Hence we need the west.
By the way, since 2004, the United States government (the Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Activities Division) has made hundreds of attacks on targets in Northwest Pakistan using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). These attacks are part of the United States’ War on Terrorism that seeks to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan.
Most of these attacks are against targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Northwest Pakistan. These strikes have increased substantially under the Presidency of Barack Obama.
Of course, many non-combatants or ‘innocent bystanders’ also die in these attacks but these are what the US considers ‘collateral damage’. Some innocent people unavoidably need to die in this War on Terrorism. Sometimes entire family members of the targets also die for this ‘good cause’.
It is good that Malaysian activists have friends like America to help them in their fight against the evil perpetrated by the Malaysian government. And that is why we cannot protest what the Americans are doing. Maybe it is not right to bomb other countries and kill many people just to assassinate one person. But that is war.
Okay, maybe war has not been officially declared. But it is not quite like America sends soldiers into another country to kill non-Americans. No humans are involved here, only bombs with engines.
Without America’s help the ISA will never be abolished. But because of America’s concern for fair trials and justice, the Malaysian government has no choice but to review all these draconian laws. And that can only help to make Malaysia a better place.
I remember back in form one when my teacher in MCKK who smoked lectured us about the evil of smoking. We all gave him a cheeky grin and he said: do what I say, not do what I do.
I suppose that best describes America. Might is, after all, right.
THE JUNE 2003 ANTI-ISA DEMONSTRATION IN KAMUNTING
