FOCUS | In front of the Palace of Justice, Auni Ruqayyah, one, seems carefree under the care of her mother Nadzirah Yaakop. She doesn’t seem to know that her father Khalid Mohd Ismath has been detained in Johor for more than 10 days over his social media postings regarding the Johor royalty.

Anyone involved in social activism may have spotted the moustachioed young Malay activist, who always stood in the front whenever someone else was arrested.

He was the one who launched solidarity campaigns urging the police to “release the detainee”, outside detention centres or prisons.

But now this student leader, Khalid Mohd Ismath ( left ), 25, has become a detainee himself. He was slapped with 14 charges in relation to his posting regarding the Johor royalty.

Even more worrying for his friends and family is that he has been denied bail.

Khalid Mohd Ismath is the fourth child in the family, born and raised in Klang. His parents were both former PAS members, and his father Mohd Ismath Habib Mohamad was a three-time candidate in the general election under the PAS banner.

Intriguingly, the young Khalid himself leans more to the left - he joined Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) instead.

Since childhood, Ismath had brought young Khalid to political events and speeches. These experiences gradually fostered the youth's political consciousness, and finally set him on the activism path.

Pioneers campus Speakers’ Corner

During his university years, Khalid became a hard-edged student leader. He created the first Speakers’ Corner at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), and further threw himself into the Occupy Dataran movement, demanding free education and the abolition of the National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN).

At the Speakers’ Corner, Khalid once invited student leaders such as Muhammad Safwan Anang and Syukri Razab to deliver speeches at the university for the first time.

However, before 15 minutes had passed, the campus police came to order a halt to their event and arrested them on the spot. They were detained until midnight.

Syukri Razab ( left ) told Malaysiakini that Khalid has always been a fearless challenger.

“At that time, no one dared to hold events at UiTM... Khalid was fearless, he challenged the tradition against all odds,” Syukri said emphatically.

For him, Khalid is always cheerful and optimistic, despite juggling student movement activities with raising a family, adding that he seems to be at ease all the time.

Nevertheless, when it comes to politics, Khalid stood firm. His relentless criticisms towards BN sometimes created "headaches" for his comrades.

“When he spoke, he would definitely attack BN and Umno. Though we warned him that it’s not suitable to do that in that event, we couldn’t stop him from bursting out ‘BN and Umno b*****d’,” Syukri chuckled over the phone.

Fell in love over Anwar

Khalid often got into trouble over his participation in social movement. UiTM once suspended the law student for three semesters by for his active involvement in the ‘Abolish PTPTN’ campaign.

Later, he transferred to the Open University of Malaysia, majoring in political science. However, he was too busy with activism to attend to his studies.

Khalid started working with the NGO Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) for about six months, and is now a customer service officer with a telecommunications company in Klang.

Two years ago, Khalid met his wife-to-be Nadzirah Yaakop on the Internet. They both attended ‘Meet Anwar Selangor’ and the couple fell in love. They got married soon after and little Auni was born last year.

Despite his office job, Khalid is still very much concerned about politics.

Nadzirah told Malaysiakini that Khalid is a good husband at home.

“On his rest days, he bathes the child, feeds her, and puts her to sleep.

“He is a responsible father. Although he is active in movements, he puts the family first.”

No stranger behind bars

As a student movement leader, Khalid was not unfamiliar with police stations. When he was a UiTM student, he was arrested and interrogated over claims that he had attacked a traffic police officer during Bersih 3, though Khalid said he was a victim of mistaken identity .

However, the 25-year-old father is a good kid in the eyes of his parents.

Malaysiakini spotted Khalid’s parents ( left ) in front of the Palace of Justice on Friday, when a group of PSM members led by committee member S Arutchelvan submitted a memorandum to chief justice Arifin Zakari over the denial of bail to Khalid.

When asked whether they support their child’s participation in student activism, Mohd Ismath Habib Mohamad answered without hesitation, “Of course!”

“My child never committed crimes, nor did he steal or rob or tease women; he doesn't even smoke.

“I am close to my son. When he attended Bersih, the whole family went to support.

"If his struggles were to succeed, everyone would benefit from that. What’s wrong with his struggle?” said Mohd Ismath.

A determined socialist

Khalid was born in a PAS family, yet he did not follow his parents' steps in joining PAS. Instead, he decisively joined PSM during a demonstration held on Earth Day few years back.

Former PSM secretary-general Arutchelvan told Malaysiakini that Khalid has long been interested in socialism, even before he joined PSM.

“He said he had compared other parties, and found interests in PSM. So he filled up the form on the spot to join us,” he told.

Arutchelvan said Khalid is good at organising solidarity campaigns. Whenever someone got arrested, he was always among the first party members to come forward.

“Speaking about solidarity campaigns, Khalid was one of the best speakers. Whenever someone got arrested, he was always the first organiser,” he said.

Khalid was also active on the Internet, where he commented on politics or even fought a war of words with netizens to defend social justice.

“(In this case) he was only defending somebody, but not criticising anyone,” Arutchelvan continued.

Khalid is now facing charges over his Facebook posting ‘ Solidariti bersama Kamal Hisham Jaafar ’. He is accused to have violated the Communications and Multimedia Act and the Sedition Act.

Before him, blogger Ali Abd Jalil, 29, was also accused of criticising the Johor royalty, and he later fled to Sweden.

Khalid’s lawyer Dinesh Muthal said that the activist was denied bail on grounds that he may flee from the country.

“The prosecution did not want to offer bail. They used the case of (blogger) Ali Abd Jalil, who has escaped from the country, as an example.

“The reason for the bail refusal is to ensure the accused will attend the court proceedings,” Dinesh told Malaysiakini .

Before the end of the interview, we asked Khalid’s father that if his son were to be found guilty, what would the family do?

The father paused briefly, and said, “I will ask for opinions from all sides. If I have to see the menteri besar, I will see him. Anything that I have to do (in order to get Khalid out), I will do.”