Most Read
Most Commented
Read more like this
mk-logo
From Our Readers

I refer to the comment by Perkasa leader Ibrahim Ali that only Malay fury kept the Internal Security Act (ISA) going on until the Act was abolished after more than 40 years.

For the other non-Malay citizens of this land - that the ISA was simply a form of shield to protect them from any untoward incidents defies logic and common sense. Ibrahim should therefore be therefore be charged with uttering seditious statements that could create hatred among Malaysians.

This Perkasa chief, who I believe was born before our Independence Day, ought to know, when during that time we had the Emergency Regulations as well, as many would call the precursor to the ISA, which similarly provided for detention without trial.

Only in the year 1960, the newly formed Parliament then enacted the Internal Security Act (ISA), aimed at suppressing the insurgent militants who became our nation’s number one threat at large, and continued to mobilise in great numbers, especially at the borders.

Moreover, throughout the 1960s, ISA detainees were mostly communists who were particularly members of the then Labour Party, which formed part of the Socialist Front.

Then, the ISA was used as a tool to silence the student movement or activists (and is still going on), and went on to become the trademark of the 1970s era, with numerous arrests made against groups like the Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim) headed by Anwar Ibrahim himself.

And if Perkasa existed back then, I would not be surprised if its leaders would have been arrested as well for their extremist nature. And we wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to hear, first hand, how Ibrahim Ali spent his days and nights under ISA detention!

And then came Operasi Lalang...

Later on, in the following decades, especially in the 1980s and especially during the former prime minister  Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s era, hundreds of opposition figures were locked away in the ISA detention camp.

The infamous ‘Operasi Lalang’ targeted trade unionists, academicians, church workers, public intellectuals, NGO activists and opposition leaders.

And who could forget the 1990s , when Anwar Ibrahim, who was then deputy prime minister and finance minister, and his followers were arrested under the ISA?

At times, I think the Perkasa chief’s preposterous views are a blessing in disguise because, without his comments, many of the non-Malays especially the Chinese and Indians, will continue to believe the fallacy that the ISA was created to safeguard their well-being and interests.

In recent times, with bigots running amok spewing ethnic-related hatred, it is in good faith that Ibrahim should abstain from uttering insensitive remarks towards his fellows Malaysians.

ADS