opinion

When they took Jonah away last Thursday many wondered if the government had gone bonkers.

Anger buzzed in coffee shops "They have taken politicians, social activists, religious practitioners, artistes and now they have gone bankrupt of ideas and have nabbed a student activist.

"Before this they have taken husbands, children, fathers, mothers, friends and lovers. Whoever said they would stop?"

Khairul Anuar Ahmad Zainuddin, also known as Jonah, is the latest Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee. A bright engineering student, Jonah is a spirited young man and an active member of a pioneer student group popularly known as Universiti Bangsar Utama (UBU). These students used to call themselves Gerakan Mahasiswa Lantang (Vocal Graduates Movement).

The UBU has successfully organised a few community projects such as providing free tuition to poor students around Bangsar- Pantai Dalam. These undergraduates are a very talented lot and would sometimes play-act in a theater group called Kumpulan Teater Bukan Teater.

Jonah loves to lepak at the Mydin Restaurant in Bangsar Utama. He is most concerned about the cats belonging to Hishamuddin Rais - film director, artiste, and malaysiakini columnist - one of the six detained in the Kamunting detention camp since June 2 for a period of two years under the ISA. Isham was their friend.

Jonah has also been frantically searching for a suitable tenant for Isham's place as the latter is unable to pay his rent now that he is in that 'blessed' place.

Only last week, Jonah told a couple of journalists at the mamak shop, "Isham is tired of reading philosophical and political books. He wants to read fiction, even love stories. And he wants to eat dried fruits and garlic."

Jonah is a decent, progressive and capable young man. Lepak to him and his peers are about sharing discussion and debates about the kind of society we presently live in, about the political scenario of this country and of what future leaders like themselves can contribute to the rakyat .

'Home wrecker'

Many Malaysians these days view the ISA as a licensed 'home wrecker'; a menace, a stumbling block to some of the world's greatest friendships. No wonder they call it a 'controversial', 'draconian', 'dreadful' and 'most feared' law.

It is not so much that you are abducted, locked away indefinitely, incommunicado, in a dark and lonely cell without being told why - they say the ones who take you in do not have to tell you why, where you are and how long you'll be there.

It is worst when they say 'You are a threat to the nation. You can wreck havoc on the streets. You can turn the country topsy-turvy. You can drive potential investors away'.

But this is what they say, 'That you are dangerous' and some of us believe what they say.

How do people like Jonah fight this harassment? How do they cope with the threats? How do they console themselves that 'This is not the end. This is only the beginning. This is not about imprisonment. This is about freedom ... ?'

A former detainee says that the only way to fight the ISA is to relinquish all sense of fear. It is to have courage. It is to say, "If thinking, acting and speaking independently is a crime, then take me to the dungeons, the gallows, before a firing squad, I am willing for I have only one life to lose for my country".

Living dangerously

In his book, The Joys of Living Dangerously , the late spiritual leader Osho says that "Courage is not the absence of fear. It is, rather, the total presence of fear, with the courage to face it.

"Whenever we are faced with uncertainty and change in our lives it is actually a cause for celebration. Instead of trying to hang on to the familiar and the known, we can learn to enjoy these situations as opportunities for adventure, and for deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world around us".

He added, "This is the courage to change when change is needed, the courage to stand up for our own truth even against the opinions of others, and the courage to embrace the unknown in spite of our fears - in our relationships, in our careers, or in the ongoing journey of understanding who we are and why we are here".

Perhaps the rakyat would appreciate if Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad could explain to his nation what he really means by 'national security'.

Why is it for such crimes, the alleged offenders are guilty until proven innocent? Whatever happened to the popular legal maxim 'innocent until proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubts' in a court of law?

Mahathir has defended Jonah's arrest, saying students were not above the law. He said the ISA, would be applied against anyone found to undermine 'national security'.

Fair trial

So the crime against national security warrants detention without trial. This sounds illogical when Malaysia's most notorious bomoh Mona Fandey chopped a minister into 18 pieces and got a fair trial. She is awaiting her death sentence now.

The bus driver who allegedly raped, sodomised and killed a woman in Klang recently, is undergoing a fair trial in an open court.

The 'beast' who raped, sodomised and killed a 16-year-old girl in Melaka with her school bag strap while she was on her way back from school, will most certainly get a fair trial as well.

However, for political dissidents and student activists such as Jonah, the ISA is nothing but a fashionable law ... a popular excuse employed by the powers that be to challenge the constitutional rights of its citizens.

Never mind that freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are all articles provided for under the Universal Declaration On Human Rights. Rights, which are also guaranteed in the country's most supreme law, the Federal Constitution.

These days, if you are suspected of drug trafficking, cloning hand phones, involved in arson or deviant teachings, rumour mongering on the Internet and attending peaceful demonstrations, you may join people like Jonah, who is at the mercy of the Home Affairs Minister, the one who will eventually decide if you are to spend the next two years or more of your life in a detention camp.

People are well aware that the reasons for preventing an event ( whether political, social or otherwise) from materialising due to threats of 'national security' is the prerogative of the ruling government.

No peace-loving and reasonable citizen of Malaysia would desire any development that would disrupt the existing peace and harmony enjoyed so abundantly in this country.

Yet, in order to be progressive, intelligent and visionary, Malaysians, especially students, would ask questions to seek knowledge, to probe on whether there are possibilities of illegality, unreasonableness and procedural impropriety in the system (is this not the 'Quality' method of the zero-defect aspiration we see on posters hanging on walls of government offices?).

Surely as caring Malaysians, the people must stand united and reject all forms of violence and breaches of natural justice, locally or globally. Surely, they must also have the freedom to discern right from wrong, the right to struggle together with like minded individuals for their causes.

Inquisitive NGOs

By entertaining queries, the government is opening the way for truly just, transparent and accountable governance. By questioning, the people are not necessarily doing so to condemn, defame or insult the party in question but to suggest improvements, to live-up to the government's very own principles of Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah as the nation zooms into the 21st century and Vision 2020!

Inquisitive individuals such as journalists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are often lambasted by the prime minister for being 'ungrateful, foreign agents, unpatriotic and consorting with the opposition'. Journalists and NGO activists have been victims of the government's wrath via the ISA before.

In defence, the NGOs claim that they are here to complement government efforts. Their funds are limited and their only assets are 'the committed and morally responsible individuals' who work behind the scenes to help redeem a social condition for the betterment of society.

They are not denying that there are bound to be black sheep but most NGOs are here to provide an alternative view, an added option and resources on how to make this world a safer place to live in.

How could all this noble intentions be deemed to be a threat to national security? Unless the notion of 'national security' has a completely different meaning to different levels of individuals. One that no one can comprehend until one is taken away to an unknown location, like Jonah.

When the right to freedom of expression is challenged and suppressed, thoughts imprisoned and tongues tied, tension builds up. That could be a bigger threat to national security than anything else.

Ardent fans of the ISA should think about this.

SUSAN LOONE is a malaysiakini journalist.