The ISA..."No Mas" ("no more" in Spanish)

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” MANDELA

It would take great physical and moral courage for our leaders – Tok Guru, Karpal, Kit Siang, Anwar, Zaid, Chuah Jui Meng, Khalid, Guan Eng, Kamarulbahrain, Fauzi, Nurul …and many others within PR to remain steadfast and resolute in their fight against BN.  It is the uncertainty of what awaits them that must worry them - if they worry at all - and uncertainty of their fate must also worry their loved ones…and worry us. They might leave for work in the morning and end up under arrest by lunchtime handcuffed and taken to places unknown to be interrogated, tortured or subjected to physical and mental duress. They might be asleep in their homes when Special Branch Officers comes knocking on their door at the dead of night and take them away from their children and wives to be taken blindfolded to some god forsaken place and begin the ordeal of not knowing what is going happen to them, for how long and for what purpose or reasons.

It is easy for those who read this in the comfort of your home or office to not be able to understand what it is these people go through. Let me try to tell you more.  

Detained, Beaten and Humiliated

Detained:

“I can still remember how, on the night of Wednesday, 17 April 2002, my husband was handcuffed as he opened the gate to welcome our ‘guests’ who dropped by in the middle of the night. A group of 12 men dashed into our single-story house in Taman Keramat and raided the whole area, including the ceiling. After four hours of ransacking, at 4.30 am, they took my husband, my CPU, my son’s CD games, my handset, my file on Islamic Studies and a camera.

My son began to cry when the van with my husband inside cruised out of our sight. I held my tears and didn’t cry at all. I consoled my son, and later he slept on my lap".

Norlaila Othman, wife of ISA detainee Mat Sah Mohd Satray

Beaten

“I was handcuffed . . . and my head was pushed down to waist level. My head was struck with a baton and my eye was hit, injuring it. When I reached room seven of [the cell block], I was continuously beaten and then forced to strip naked, ordered to crawl while entering the room and then my buttocks were kicked and that was how I stumbled inside, naked”

Mohamad Faiq bin Hafidh : Kamunting Detention Center.

Anyway he started to beat me with a wooden beam which looked very like the 2 by 4 beams that are used in carpentry. He beat me on the legs and particularly hard on the soles of my feet. I was required to hold my feet one at a time so that he could beat the soles. I am not able to tell how long the session lasted because I did not have the luxury of a watch. All the beating was accompanied by even more painful verbal abuse.

Irene Xavier.

Humilated:

Human rights groups have documented a common pattern in the treatment of ISA detainees. During the initial 60-day investigation period, ISA detainees  would be assaulted, forced to strip, deprived of sleep, food and water, told that their families would be harmed, and subjected to prolonged aggressive interrogation to coerce confessions or elicit information. ISA detainees have often been held in solitary confinement in this period in a windowless cell where they lose all sense of time. The sense of helplessness is exacerbated by the knowledge that no judicial or legal intervention is permitted and that family visits are entirely at the discretion of their Special Branch interrogators.

The Monthly ISA Watch, Trafalgar Square, London.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010 20:03

That this is happening in the time that we live in now is simply unacceptable. That the power to do so is vested, among others,in the hands of these guy is frightening!

I do not have a solution or a way out of this. Those whom we call our leaders are indifference to the unnecessary suffering of these ISA detainees even as they are the cause of it. Words like a danger to national security, a threat to racial harmony..are uttered repeatedly by those in power to justify these atrocities they impose on their own people.

“Throughout history, countless thousands continue to mourn as a result of pain, torture, and loss of life inflicted upon them or those near and dear to them--innocent men, women, and children. In spite of the teachings of Moses, Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed, perpetrators and victims of pain and suffering have been found among all peoples, all nations, all religions, and all races. Yet, we must also note the poets, journalists, statesmen, and ordinary people, who, in many voices and often at great risk to themselves, elect to speak out against the inhumanity they see, in the hope that in time parents might raise their children in peace”. Robert Burns ( 1759- 1796),

For now all that can ask our government to do is this. Do not ask yourself if you need the ISA for national security or to contain those whom you think would threaten your way of life – ask yourself if the ISA is right. Ask yourself if it is right to detain, beat and humiliate a fellow human…or is there another way to do this? Another way that good decent human beings can ensure that respect for each others beliefs and aspirations are more important then the promotion of one’s own selfish agenda and wants.

We, you and me, must also ask ourself our part in allowing our government to continue to use the ISA against us. Are we not to be blame for not saying anything? For saying we will wait until the next general election and ask PR to abolish the ISA? Why not do something now? Why not raise your voices and remind BN that it is we, the people, that allows them to govern us – and that they must listen when we say we do not want the ISA to hang over our heads!

I have not seen any execution of a guilty man by hanging or the electric chair. I have not seen the stoning of any women for adultery nor the cutting off of someone’s limb for theft…but I know, as sure as I know that the sun will rise in the East tomorrow and set in the West – I know that the ISA is one of man’s greatest inhumanity to man and must be abolished.  If you care enough for the sufferings of innocents, then you too must get off your comfortable place of rest and go do something to stop this insidious ISA.  

This is our Tunku talking about a number of things...suggest you go to 4.20 to listen what he has to say on the ISA:..and here are a few of his wise words.....

"ISA untuk melawan dengan communist...communist yang berperang selama 12 tahun.....nak lawan dengan dia orang kita kena guna satu kuasa (ISA)....habis tu kita lawan dengan Sukarano pulak yang nak menghanchorkan dan mengayang kita....ada orang Melyu yang nak suruh orang Melayu masok belah Sukarno....dan lepas itu datang pulak tuntutan Philipines atas Sabah...itu pun banyak hantu hantu di dalam negri.....

Bukan nak lawan dengan orang politik yang tentang kita...yang marah kita ..tiap tiap kesalan yang kita buat...yang tak betul pun ada...tapi tak boleh kita gunakan ISA menangkap dia...tutup mulut dia...kalau kita buat begitu apa dia makna kita ada pembangkang...bukankah mereka di lantik oleh rakyat...Democracy?