COMMENT My good friend the late K Das used to jest that if he were ever detained and under threat of torture, he would tell his tormenters that his biggest phobia was being bombarded with cotton wool flakes, an open invitation to the Special Branch to please inflict this particular form of torture on him. Bless his soul!

The recent case of an artist who had unleashed a nano-tonne yellow balloon named ‘Justice’ onto a gathering in a shopping mall at which the prime minister was present makes me reconsider whether my old friend’s phobia about being bombarded with flakes of cotton wool was actually said in jest. The poor lass had to put up with the nuisance of being charged under Section 14 of the Minor Offences Act 1955 for ‘insulting behaviour’ with intent to provoke breach of peace.

On the other hand, the authorities do not consider the red shirt rally organiser Jamal Md Yunos’ threat of another rally or a riot at Petaling Street to be provoking a breach of the peace, nor calling the Chinese “pigs” to be insulting behaviour.

This is by no means the first time the Malaysian authorities have displayed a phobia for balloons. In 1988, during the first anniversary of Operation Lalang when we were on hunger strike in Kamunting Detention Camp, our support group outside had organised a ‘picnic’ at Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur.

Each family of the detainees released a balloon with the name of the detainee attached. When my wife was releasing hers, she was pounced on by a bunch of plain clothed police and dragged away. Apparently, releasing a balloon is a most subversive act indeed!

Fear of balloons is called ‘globophobia’. Globophobics tend not to trust people who have a balloon in their hand. Malaysia is certainly developing a reputation for being the place to study this most uncommon form of aberrant behavior. Who knows, a Malaysian might win a Nobel Prize yet for some breakthrough research into globophobia, perhaps.

This is an appropriate poem to take away - ‘The Fear’ by Ron Villejo:

“Do not be fooled -

Run, do not skip

Smile, if you must

Say ‘f**k’ to show how bold you are

This nightmare comes in the guise of a wonderland

Balloons will burst and red shirts kill

These dancing men will stab you swift

Don’t look away -

Do what you must

That mission is all you may have

For life will give you nothing else

Feel f**king good after you do...

Run, do not skip

Then come to a dead stop

In the unrelenting and reeling day.”

DR KUA KIA SOONG is Suaram adviser.