The Umno/BN government finally unleashed the ISA against Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) last Friday. It was in a way expected and it did not really surprise me at all. However, the detention of Teresa Kok and Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng is totally uncalled for and dastardly.
The Home Minister said that Tan was detained "for her safety". Dear minister, do you really expect us to believe that? The truth to this whole issue is the fact that Tan was arrested for doing her job right, which is reporting facts and she got into trouble for that.
Meanwhile, the real perpetrator in this whole saga gets to sleep in his own comfortable bed at night without a fear in the world.
What is disturbing is the fact that Ahmad Ismail was not detained, neither was Khir Toyo or other right-wing figures who have been openly pouring the proverbial petrol on the fire. It is interesting to note that Sin Chew Daily, The Sun and Suara Keadilan all received show cause letters from the Home Ministry while Utusan Malaysia, despite its racist and questionable coverage, gets nothing whatsoever.
Alarm bells are ringing loud and clear this time around. We are now living in a country where justice does not seem to prevail anymore. We are now living in a country where anyone can openly preach hatred and get away with it by the virtue of being a party member, while courageous ordinary people like Tan get locked up instead.
We live in a country where discredited politicians can cry wolf and get a rival locked up for no credible reason at all. We live in a country where a high-ranking minister is accused of horrific crimes, yet there are no visible investigations or attempts to establish the truth.
We live in a country where the ruling party is so desperate to remain in power, it will sink to any depths to survive, even if it takes locking up rivals and creating ill-will among the people.
Whether or not Sept 16 is going materialise, we will not now until that day comes. But the stakes are very high indeed. If Anwar Ibrahim fails to deliver as promised, even after a reasonable delay of a few extra days, he can expect to kiss his political career goodbye.
This will result in us Malaysians enduring the same old thing for the next 50 years, probably longer. If Anwar fails, Umno will become even more bold and they will never allow themselves to be this vulnerable again. However if the plan succeeds, then Umno can expect to be relegated to the gutters of history and politics by quickly finding itself becoming a relic from the past.
As for RPK, the government can lock him up , throw away the keys and never let him see the sun shine again. But the government will never be able to stop his ideas and vision for a just, free and multicultural Malaysia.
What the government does not seem to understand is that visions and ideas are intangible and hence they cannot be physically taken away from someone. Even though RPK is locked up at an unknown location, his ideas and thoughts still strike a chord with the many Malaysians who read his blog and these ideas will continue to inspire countless people, while the actions of this government will continue to disgust all right-thinking Malaysians.