I do not know what has gone wrong with my friend and ex-ISA detainee Dr Kassim Ahmad who seems to hate Anwar Ibrahim so much that he is even willing to support the obnoxious Internal Security Act (ISA) by appearing on RTM to voice his backing for it recently.

I once respected Kassim Ahmad. I even campaigned for his freedom in the late 1970s. But now, he seems to have betrayed all his principles and idealism.

It is a sad reflection that a man known for his dedication and idealism could degenerate into an apologist of the regime that once almost ruined his family and himself. To me, the old Kassim Ahmad for whose freedom from ISA I campaigned is dead.

The Kassim Ahmad today is as ugly as the imperialists and colonial masters he condemned day and night long ago. History will remember today's Kassim Ahmad as a jailer of Hishammudin Rais.