One the eve of Malay-sian day, the One Malay-sian UMNO Prime Minister made his biggest ever election maneuver that the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) is to be repealed”.
And in it’s place two new laws will be enacted and the detention thereto to be reviewable by the courts except involving terrorism. (The Star headlines 16/9/2011).
But on the very next day the very same The Star on 17/9/11 at page 8 reported “Nazri: ISA can only be abolished next year”. (after the general elections).
“The ISA according to the very drafter R.J Hicklings in no uncertain terms was reported to have said in a New Straits Times newsreport on 30/7/2006 that “The (ISA) Act was only intended against communist insurgents and those bent on armed struggle. Heckling further said that the ISA was being used against people for whom it was not intended” “it was designed to be more limited in it’s scope than it is at the moment”. Organised violence is the key to this preamble, but a lot of people who had nothing to do with organized violence at all were arrested”. “I would want judicial review at all times”. “But the Malaysian Courts almost always” has had the interest of the government alone above everything else”.
But for the Hindraf lawyers, the UMNO Malay-sian government went around the I.S.A laws by creating a non existent link and linking them to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ellam (LTTE) terrorist group and did a media propaganda build up quoting beginning from no less than the very Attorney General Tan Sri Gani Patail, then Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan and then parroted over and over again by the then Home Minister and other UMNO elements which had created an overall make believe and/or suspicious circumstances that the Hindraf lawyers were indeed linked to the LTTE.( This can happen again today despite the aforesaid Prime Minister’s announcement).
Myself & lawyer M. Manoharan in particular were caught completely off guard as they have had zero links to the LTTE.
A police report by myself against then UMNO Malay-sian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Home Minister, Attorney General, and the Inspector General of Police demanding police investigations and swift action on this false and criminally defamatory LTTE allegation only led them to be arrested and detained under the ISA within days on 13/12/07.
At the once in every three months “supposedly” Independent ISA Review Board, their vehement denials of links with LTTE were rejected. To the point that P. Uthayakumar had lost confidence in the ISA Review Board and had refused to attend the last hearing of the ISA Review Board just before he was finally released on 9/5/09.
Despite repeated Habeas Corpus applications during the 514 days of ISA detention amongst others denying the LTTE link, the Malay-sian Courts right up to the apex Supreme Court had dismissed all their numerous applications.
Even after release from ISA detention, mine and M. Manoharan’s High Court civil suit against the Prime Minister and the Home Minister for among others challenging the LTTE link was never replied to in the Statement of Defence by the Malay-sian government and they literally got away scott free.
To add insult to injury even the Malay-sian Judiciary right up to the apex Federal Court had dismissed their appeals. Up to date they both had no avenue of clearing their names that they never had any links at all whatsoever with the LTTE.
And we note that the said Prime Minister’s announcement circumvented the impression and perception created by not repealing the Emergency Ordinance 1969 which is akin to old wine in new bottles. In July 2011 Dr. Jayakumar Devaraj and five other PSM political activists were similarly detained under the Emergency Ordinance(E.O) on their alleged communist links and waging a war against the King. And UMNO very shrewdly and blatantly circumventing the real reason for detaining them ie for being mere political activists.
The reality from the above being that the ISA can be “repealed” but the E.O can and has been used against mere political activists like the aforesaid E06 and ousting the Court’s review simply by linking and labelling them as communist “terrorism” (and LTTE link) and ousting the High Court’s review (This can happen again today despite the aforesaid Prime Minister’s announcement). Old wine in new bottles and UMNO Malay-sia is back in business after their political rhetoric and after having scored political mileage especially in the upcoming crucial 13th General Elections where the “UMNO reign of terror” targeted especially against the Indian poor from the Putrajaya power house is excepted to come to an end.
About the first things done to me at the ISA Kamunting Prison was to deny me my diabetic medication which ended up in myself being hospitalized at the Taiping General Hospital within months of detention.
And when I had injured my left toe and my left foot had become swollen and was blackening as a result of diabetics, I was refused to be taken to hospital for treatment until even a peaceful assembly had to be held outside the Brickfields police station when tens of Hindraf activists were arrested.
After 514 days of being forced to sleep on the cement floor on a mere one inch thin foam mattress, I today after two years and four months suffers severe back pain numbness of his fingers and feet and overall weakening of his lower limbs.
This is the price paid for merely standing up for the Indian poor vis a vis equal rights and equal opportunities which is guaranteed for in Article 8 of the Federal Constitution, to end the Malay-sian UMNO governments’ blatant racism, facism and supremacy targeted against the Indian poor and for championing a better tomorrow, a peaceful and harmonious Malaysia.
To me there is no regrets and the struggle goes on.
If this has to happen all over again, so be it.
Rights not Mercy.
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