EGM on ISA: To realise that which is in our collective ability to achieve and accomplish

To my brothers and sisters at the Bar,

Roman Catholic priests do it, Cabinet Ministers do it, MPs from both sides of the aisle do it, the Mufti of Perlis does it, even the former Prime Minister of Malaysia does it. So let’s all do it. Do what? No, not fall in love (though they may all do that too). No, let’s oppose the existence of the ISA.

I know, I know, you will say, it’s yet another Malaysian Bar EGM on the ISA. So what else is new? What is so different about this time that we should give up a very nice Saturday to attend? And it’s not that there will be breakfast – the notice says only water will be provided.

Well I could tempt you with the promise of a new Malaysian Bar anti-ISA badge. (I myself haven’t seen it but I’ve seen the mock-up). Or new anti-ISA t-shirts that will be sold by volunteers from Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI). But I won’t.

I would have liked to attend. But for a pre-arranged trip to Myanmar, I would be there. So for all those of you who are in the country and are able to attend, please do. Please come, and speak out. Come to stand up and be counted. If nothing else, it is to say, yes once again, that we are against the ISA. That the ISA represents such a departure from even the minimum standards of decency to our fellow human beings and citizens which any self-respecting society should aspire.

But it is for so many more reasons. At the last count, 67 of them. Some are husbands and fathers and brothers, all but one of them sons. Separated from their families, loved ones and friends, their lives torn apart, unable to test the veracity of and respond to the very serious allegations made against them which have deprived them of their liberty because they have been unconscionably denied their fundamental right to a fair and open trial. And incarcerated indefinitely with no knowledge, let alone certainty, of release. The longest detainee is now in his 6th year and 9th month of detention, and will remain locked away until at least January 2010.

Another reason? Because the use of the ISA in this manner, and under these circumstances, is clearly no longer simply about whether or not the ISA is an immoral piece of legislation (which it is). Instead it is about the attempt by the executive branch of government to justify the ill-thought through use of the ISA for purely self-serving (and self-surviving) partisan political reasons. And if doubt can be (and it certainly has been) cast about the true nature of the motives on the part of the executive in using the ISA this time, then it seriously calls into question the true nature of the motives on the part of the same executive in using the ISA all those times before.

Yet another reason? At this juncture of our history and our country’s political development, separate segments of society have been brought together and united in opposition to a cruel and inhumane piece of legislation. I may have started humorously. But the truth of the matter is that leaders from all sides of the political divide, leaders representing the major religions in this country, leaders of civil society organisations, and the average person in the street, have all voiced their disapproval of the ISA. Its patent unfairness and injustice have been so vividly brought home into the living rooms of millions of households up and down our country. In a way that has never occurred before, ordinary people have sensed for themselves the evil violation of their civic rights and have responded to their civil responsibilities. Their righteous indignation has rightfully drawn them out into the streets, in silent candlelit protest against the abusive nature of the powers that be. The sound of their silence has been deafening. That the authorities feel threatened could be sensed in the order of a police officer to those attending the Bukit Aman vigil not only to disperse but to snuff out their candles. For the light of their candles shines brightly to expose the dark moral bankruptcy of those who would cling to and protect and defend a decadent remnant of colonial rule in order to continue to subjugate a people struggling for meaningful freedom. But our protests will not be snuffed out.

Of course the Bar has spoken. Our President has issued a statement on our behalf. Our brothers and sisters at law continue the busy task of representing the detainees in the courts and review boards of our land, but to little or no avail. Even though we may not agree with their politics, in detaining one the executive detains us all. The detention of one diminishes us all. As the poet John Donne once wrote:


“No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

So we can and should do more. When we came face to face with injustice last year, we bravely took to the streets. In the face of continuing injustice, we can, indeed society expects us to, do no less than to come forward and let our collective voice be heard through the overwhelming and unanimous endorsement of the resolution placed before the EGM.

I therefore urge as many of you as possible to attend. To show support and solidarity with those whose liberty has been snatched away, often in the darkness of the night. To speak out for those whose voices have been silenced. To stand up for those who are unable to do so for themselves. In the words of Friedrich Gustav Martin Niemoller:

“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

May we always strive and never cease to rise above ourselves, in spite of ourselves, to realise that which is in our collective ability to achieve and accomplish.

Andrew Khoo Chin Hock
Malaysia Bar