Three years before I was born ---

In nineteen sixty

Before I could even stick out my tongue

(in a somewhat nifty, nefarious) Act, they tore it out.

- The tongue, James, the tongue.

I could hear them argue from heaven

And almost didn’t come down.

In their black robes and white wigs

They talked about untouchable pigs

I say, ISA, I heard them say

For any I say after eleven, another one chimed

Or seven, for this or that reason, the other one rhymed

The tongue is just a figure of speech.

It is legislature. It is human nature.

We are doing it to prevent future grime

From coating the surface of the Malaysian preface

We are doing it to prevent future crime.

Understand this. I say in English.

To keep the streets of Malaysia clean

In nineteen sixty before I could open

My mouth and say the sky is falling down

They plucked away

Our candy pink tongues

And the cry for four freedoms

Died like Roosevelt in our lungs.