opinion

"Be careful," my mother wrote in her e-mail after the news that Khairul Anuar Ahmad Zainuddin was arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) came out. "The government is beginning a crackdown on students, you never know what might happen."

I was absolutely shocked when I heard the news that two students have been detained under the ISA in Malaysia. I am still recovering from the news that Rafzan Ramli, a Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) student, had been expelled for his involvement in an anti-ISA rally. And now this. I have always thought that the ISA, being the harshest punishment of all, would be the last resort used against so-called 'dissidents'.

Names like Tian Chua, Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor and Hishamuddin Rais were always going to be popular targets for the ISA by an increasingly desperate government - but for them to arrest a student, one I had never heard of before, must say something about the need by the government to silence an ever-growing movement.

It evidently shows that, at the very least, the student movement is a force to be reckoned with. Whether it realises it or not, the government has certainly given the students a sense of strength and importance.

As a student studying overseas, far away from the stifling Universities and University Colleges Act, I have been fortunate to be exposed to student activism from the start of my time here. In a way, I have never had to worry about being arrested for whatever I say or write. I am protected by the Code of Practice on Free Speech, which in turn complies with the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 19.

'Threat to national security'

Yet I know that my fellow students in Malaysia do not enjoy such rights. After hearing the news about Khairul's arrest, I thought about all the things I have done here which could have branded me as a 'threat to national security' if I were back in Malaysia.

Let's see - I do a lot of writing. It is my way of expressing my views and getting my point across. Could I get arrested for that? What I write is sometimes very critical of the government, but I don't think I am threatening anyone's life by doing so. I am merely putting my thoughts down on paper, and people can read and decide whether they agree with me or not.

Last year, I attended a lecture by Ezam, the youth chief of Keadilan, and Dr Syed Husin Ali, the president of PRM, here in London. One is a current ISA detainee, the other, a former. I even shook Ezam's hand at the end of the lecture. Does that make me a member of a 'subversive' group aimed at toppling the government?

I had read Dr Syed Husin's book Two Faces . I even lent the book to a couple of friends who were interested. We discussed about it and we agreed that the ISA is a draconian piece of legislation. Could I then be perceived as "taking orders from opposition politicians" to rally student's support for reformasi?

Hmm... I recently signed a petition appeal calling for the abolishment of the ISA and the immediate release of all ISA detainees. I also chanted "Free Tian Chua" at a public demonstration. Does that mean I am an enemy of the state?

I saw Tian Chua at a public gathering once last year in KL; he did not look like someone capable of carrying around with him a grenade launcher, yet he is now in the Kamunting detention centre so what's to stop the police from saying that I am capable of doing so?

Oh, I also have this habit of sending out e-mail to my Malaysian friends here about all the latest news from Malaysia. Does this constitute a 'threat to national security'? This has made me increasingly unpopular among the Malaysians here, who would rather talk about the latest Formula One results or the Big Brother reality TV show. Most of them don't care because they are not going back home anyway.

By urging my Malaysian friends to be more aware of what's happening back home, have I done the unthinkable? Have I made them think about their rights? Have I made them compare what they have here now with what they will not have back home?

Automatons

I watched the movie about the 'Guildford Four' case, where the Prevention of Terrorism Act was used to wrongly implicate four innocent people of bombing a pub. It made me think then that detention without trial is certainly the most cruel act of injustice. It is most unfair and most undemocratic.

Khairul's arrest (and the following day, Universiti Malaya student leader Mohamad Fuad Mohd Ikhwan's arrest) touched a chord in me because both are students, just like me. Yes, we are in a quest of getting a degree but that does not make us automatons whose only concern is to memorise textbooks so that we may score Firsts.

We are in a quest of getting an education . It is part and parcel of our intellectual pursuit to look around us and ask questions, to get involved in discourse and put our mind to work. Having done that, we cannot be expected to merely keep quiet and "take it as it comes". We need to make our voices heard .

When UiTM expelled Rafzan Ramli on June 22, all it did was tarnish its own image as an academic seat in the eyes of students. Why was it punishing the very minds it was meant to educate and nurture?

'Not taught like that'

I must admit, the ISA arrests sent chills down my spine. It made me scared. I live in fear of the ISA, in fear that my own government will punish me for my struggles.

My head says: Don't be ridiculous. You have done nothing that threatens the security of your country. No one's life has been affected by what you do. Your friends still talk about Formula One and Big Brother . People back home still go through life as if nothing has happened.

That's the 'beauty' of the ISA. The police do not need to prove anything against you. They do not need to show beyond a reasonable doubt that you are actually a threat to national security. All they need to do is to accuse you of being one. And they certainly have enough to accuse me, or anyone else, for that matter.

It only takes some imagination to throw some accusations against me. I could be a 'foreign agent' for having taken part in an Amnesty International campaign. I could be "conspiring with the opposition to topple the government", having shook Ezam's hand after that lecture. I could be an "instigator of public unrest" for sending out anti-ISA e-mail. I could be guilty of 'subversive activities' for writing in malaysiakini .

But I have no regrets whatsoever. Everything I did, I believe, I was acting out of my own free will, of sound body and mind, and I spoke out of my own conscience. I am just, as it is, being a student. And these are some of the things that students do, apart from attending lectures, revising for exams, talking about Formula One, etc. and doing the laundry

And though I am scared of being arrested under the ISA, I don't think it will do for me to keep quiet. I am very much like Khairul, Rafzan or Ahmad Fuad. All we are, is a bunch of individuals who have a high degree of awareness and concern, and we cannot, even if we try, keep quiet in the face of all this injustice.

We were just not taught like that.

KARIENA ABDULLAH is currently studying in London.