Who is PH to forgive Dr M on behalf of 10k ISA detainees?
Pakatan Harapan politicians should stop bearing their ISA detention as a badge of honour and try to understand the difference between “forgiveness” from “impunity.”
Kua Kia Soong, Free Malaysia Today
I read with incredulity and amusement that some of the Pakatan Harapan politicians at the ‘Save Malaysia’ rally had appointed themselves representatives of the more than 10,000 Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees, who wish to forgive former Premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad for his authoritarian rule including the use of detention without trial.
The first point of fact worth noting is that up until now, Mahathir has yet to apologise for his authoritarian record and to ask for forgiveness from any of the ISA detainees he incarcerated. The second point is of course the shameless gall of these politicians to arrogate to themselves the role of representing all these former ISA detainees.
The ISA games politicians play
Many politicians today wear their ISA detention like a badge of honour that they can display for maximum political mileage. To them, their ISA detention was bearable as long as it could be used in the advancement of their political careers. In fact, from my detention while at Kamunting, those politicians who were not yet married, who did not yet have their own families or minimally participated in family life had quite a good time there. During Operation Lalang, most of the members of the main political parties and large NGOs were not subjected to physical torture so they may be ready to forgive the man who now opposes Prime Minister Najib Razak who stands in their political path. Some may even want to thank the former prime minister for helping to advance their political careers…
Can these politicians really speak for all of the more than 10,000 ISA detainees since 1960?
Do they represent Loh Meng Liang, who sadly departed last week, and who was detained for more than 16 years? He was my first roommate when we were taken to Kamunting in 1987. He stood for socialist principles that Mahathir’s government considered a threat to national security and saw more than 16 years of his life taken away for his beliefs.
Do they represent Joshua Jamaluddin, the Malay convert to Christianity who suffered gross torture such as this: “On one occasion during interrogation, Inspector Yusoff forced me to strip naked and to enact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Inspector Yusoff also forced me to crawl on the floor in a naked state for about 10 minutes…” (Kua Kia Soong, ‘445 Days under the ISA’, 1989:206) This is but a small part of the bestiality by the ISA torturers that Joshua was subjected to.
Do these politicians also represent Munawar Anees, the former confidant of Anwar Ibrahim? In his affidavit: “Alas, the Malaysian dictator, Mahathir, under the growing burden of corruption and cronyism, conspired to halt the march of freedom. In order to build his fraudulent case against Anwar, Mahathir himself ordered my arrest. My kidnapping and detention by the infamous Malaysian Special Branch taught me how it feels to be forcibly separated from one’s wife and children. How it feels to be searched and seized, disallowed to make phone calls, handcuffed, blindfolded, stripped naked, driven in an animal cage, shaven bald, endlessly interrogated, humiliated, drugged, deprived of sleep, physically abused. What it’s like to be threatened, blackmailed, tormented by police lawyers, brutalised to make a totally false confession, hospitalised for a consequent heart ailment, and treated as a psychiatric patient with symptoms of Stockholm syndrome.” (Dr Munawar Anees’ Story, http://dranees.org)
The details of his harrowing experience by these sub-human torturers can be gleaned from his affidavit on the Internet. Have any of these Pakatan Harapan politicians asked Dr Munawar Anees if he forgives Mahathir for the bestiality he went through?
The ISA has been a tool of state repression
The reality is that the ISA has been used as a political tool by the Malaysian state all these years to maintain their class rule. So it is not for the Pakatan Harapan politicians to forgive one man for using the ISA. Do they also forgive the entire ruling class represented in the Malaysian state? Maybe this form of political analysis is beyond the ken of these Pakatan Harapan politicians…
The use of the ISA goes way back to the Independence days when the main threat to the ruling Alliance coalition was the Socialist Front. Do our present day politicians also claim to represent all those ISA detainees since 1960? Have our Pakatan Harapan politicians undergone the torture that many of these former Socialist leaders and activists had to undergo? The following is an excerpt from a hitherto unpublished statement by “political prisoners of Kawasan A, B, C”, dated May 1, 1969, a historic document released from Batu Gajah Detention Camp:
