Malaysian Govt’s use of ISA is cowardly, absurd, haphazard and despicable

September 14, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Regional Affairs 

Written by Ng E-Jay
13 Sept 2008

The arrest of Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin, Sin Chew Daily News reporter Tan Hoon Cheng, and DAP’s Teresa Kok under Section 73(1) of the Malaysia’s Internal Security Act is nothing but a despicable, haphazard, and cowardly measure on the part of the BN to intimidate the opposition and silence dissent.

It is a last-miniute, terribly ill-conceived, fumbling, desperate measure by Malaysia’s ruling party to hang on to power which is fast slipping away from their weakening grip.

The Government’s charge that these 3 people are stoking racism is becoming the standard excuse for clampdowns of this nature. Of course, when people start being labelled as racists when they are in fact defending the rights of citizens and criticizing the Government for itself practicing racism, you know the Government has sunk to a new low.

The BN must think that it can use paper to cover fire, that outright lies can delay the inevitable. History will not judge its actions kindly.

Even if these 3 people are racists, there are adequate laws outside ISA that can be used to prosecute them. To invoke the ISA shows the world the real intentions of the Malaysian Government, which is so obvious I will not bother to elaborate.

Although Sin Chew Daily News reporter Tan Hoon Cheng has been released, there is no news of the other two.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar has been quoted as denying that the crackdown was aimed at suppressing dissent, and that one of the reasons Tan Hoon Cheng was taken into custody was because the authorities “received reports her life was threatened“.

I cannot even begin to describe how lame, absurd, and illogical this statement is. If a person’s life is being threatened, he or she deserves police protection, not detention under a draconian law.

Clearly the use of ISA in this instance is haphazard and reeks of total lack of planning and control. It reveals that the BN has lost its nerve and is trying to grasp at straws in a final, flailing bid to remain in power.

The BN has lost every ounce of morality and credibility and no longer deserves to be in power.

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Comments

4 Comments on Malaysian Govt’s use of ISA is cowardly, absurd, haphazard and despicable

  1. paidsecurity on Mon, 15th Sep 2008 7:59 am

    2. i wonder what our minister of law will do if that happens here?

  2. Jeff Khoo on Mon, 15th Sep 2008 10:11 am

    3. Morality and credibility are at the core of the issue, aren’t they? It seems hard to criticise the use of the ISA, on either side of the causeway, without dragging the two into the picture.

    http://void-deck.blogspot.com/2008/09/zaid-ibrahim-and-isa.html

  3. coocoobird on Mon, 15th Sep 2008 4:33 pm

    4. Some organizations have as much ‘morality and credibility’ as the Casino.

    If morality and credibility were the core of the issues as defined by some people, we end up with SIN.

  4. Anti-ISA solidarity message from Singapore: Malaysian Govt’s use of ISA is cowardly, absurd, haphazard and despicable « BlogCkChew on Thu, 18th Sep 2008 2:18 pm

    5. [...] September 18, 2008 · No Comments http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=650 [...]

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