Hisham rushed back to the block and shouted, Badrul has been sent back, Badrul has been sent back! It was just like any other day, it was around 4pm on Jan 31 and I was reading a book, and Hisham had gone out of the detention block to the kitchen to receive our rations for dinner.
I was in total disbelief. Hisham repeated, Badrul Amin is back in Kamunting Detention Camp!
Where did you get the news? I still refused to believe what I was hearing.
The kitchen staff (they are detainees too) told me. He is already in the registration office .
I was numb. I only began to accept the fact when a warden led several inmates carrying a new bed into our block. He instructed them to place the bed in the middle of the block, then left without any explanation.
Bad news, I thought. An additional person was being sent to our block. It had to be Badrul Amin. I nearly broke into tears when I hugged Badrul Amin as he came into the block. All five of us, Saari, Ezam, Lokman, Hisham and I welcomed him as if he was coming home. Our feelings were mixed with joy and sadness.
That night, my emotions stirred within me. My eyes were wide open all night long till dawn. I kept thinking of his re-arrest.
The government, it seems, was demonstrating its absolute power. It was a display of force against us and to the people of Malaysia in general. The might of the Internal Security Act was intended to intimidate people so no one would dare to defy authority.
Puzzling release
Badrul Amin was discharged from Kamunting prison camp, on Nov 3 last year. Without prior notice, he was taken out of prison and dropped off at the Taiping bus station. Off you go! The Special Branch officers said. You are now free from detention .
There was however, a big question mark to this whole affair. Badrul Amin was free from prison but he was ordered to confine himself to Gombak and not to go out of his house after 10pm. However, the boundary of Gombak area was never actually defined.
Badrul was also forced to sign a pledge not to involve himself in any political activities that could threaten national security. These strange and rather vague conditions certainly served as a reminder that walking out of prison does not mean freedom.
A lot of people outside were puzzled by the release. Was it because Dr Badrul was less of a security threat than the rest of us? Or was it a token of relaxing on political repression? Many people wondered if the rest of us would also be released soon. There were hundreds of questions yet there were just no answers.
In fact, it became useless cracking our heads over issues pertaining to the ISA. Since the execution of the ISA was never intended to be rational, we cannot (and need not) reason on its operation.
The ISA is purely and solely the exercise of naked dictatorial power. Nothing else. If there were no satisfactory explanation for Badruls release, the reason for his re-arrest was even more perplexing. He was re-arrested without notice and without explanation.
Freedom robbed
On the night of Jan 30, Badrul received a phone call from the police asking him to go to the nearby police station to sign certain documents. As usual, Badrul obliged with the request. Only upon his arrival did he realise that it was a trick.
The Special Branch officers told him that he had violated the conditions of his release and had to be re-detained at the Kamunting Camp. Despite being pressed, the police did not clarify the conditions that he violated.
Immediately, Badrul was taken into a van headed for Kamunting. He was not even allowed to go home to pack any of his belongings or to say goodbye to his children. He could only say a few parting words to his wife who had accompanied him to the station.
The following afternoon, he arrived at Kamunting Prison Camp, a three- hour drive from Kuala Lumpur.
The ISA has no regard for the rights of citizens. Liberty is the most endearing thing for any living being. With a mere stroke of a pen, a persons freedom can be robbed.
I am satisfied with the facts provided by the police that you have violated the conditions of your release. In the interest of security, I order your re-arrest and detention. Signed: Abdullah Badawi, Minister of Home Affairs.
What did the minister mean when he said in the interest of security? Had there been any incident or threats during the brief period of Badruls release? The authorities had not specified which of his activities had risked public order. Neither was he accused of breaching any law.
Government propaganda
Badruls outrageous re-arrest reaffirms that the ISA detention of reformasi activists was politically motivated. Our arrest was part of a massive crackdown designed to systematically eliminate legitimate dissent.
The government was unable to link our activities to any specific security threat. There was never any evidence to indicate our wrong doings. Nearly a year after our arrest, the authorities have not publicly announced our actual crime.
The day after our arrest, the Inspector-General of Police held a press conference to denounce us as terrorists. He claimed that we had stockpiled dangerous weapons such as rocket launchers, hand grenades, bombs, etc and that we were plotting to overthrow the government through violence.
However, during the entire length of our interrogations, none of these allegations were ever pursued. The accusations of armed insurgence were not included in our detention order, signed by the home minister. It also appeared that the general public did not believe the governments propaganda.
Since the tragedy of Sept 11 last year, the government has found a new excuse to justify the ISA. The notorious image of the act is being whitewashed as a necessary anti-terrorist tool. Taking the advantage of global tension, the government subsequently arrested a few dozen more individuals and branded them as militant terrorists.
With the arrest of these so-called militants, the government attempted to convince the people of the presence of terrorists in this country, hence political repression has been justified. Ironically, government leaders got upset with the foreign media when they repeated the governments statement of terrorists being rampant in Malaysia. The government is caught in its own web.
On one hand, it wants to assure the international community and foreign investors that Malaysia is free from terrorists. On the other hand, the government propagates to the people that the country is under threat from Islamic fundamentalists.
It is obvious that the government is exploiting the sentiment against terrorism for political mileage. The atmosphere of fear licensed its continuos clamping down on the opposition.
Protest action
Nowadays, all ISA detainees are repeatedly being characterised as terrorists. This is a label we strongly protest. The government has had more than 10 months to prove us guilty but until now, no evidence of our so-called terrorist acts have been presented to the public.
Now Badrul is again behind bars.Yet the government still refuses to clarify the basis for our imprisonment. We challenge the government to show to the public our involvement in activities that endangered national security. We demanded a trial in an open court.
Continuous imprisonment without trial is a blatant abuse of our legitimate rights. The Federal Constitution has proclaimed that all citizens are entitled to a fair trial and the right to legal council. Under the ISA, we are deprived of our fundamental constitutional rights.
As an immediate reaction against Badruls re-arrest, we started a protest action. Since Feb 4th, we have boycotted all food rations provided by the prison. However, this is only the beginning of our resistance campaign.
We are doing this to demand that:
1) the Home Minister to clearly justify the reasons of Badrul Amins re arrest and specify what conditions had been breached;
2) the government pinpoint our political actions that had violated national security and that;
3) if the government possesses proof of our terrorist activities, we challenge the Attorney-General to charge us in court.
If the government is unable or unwilling to comply, we should be duly and immediately be freed from prison. We call upon the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to respond to our demands before March 10.
To demonstrate our determination to reclaim our liberty, we are prepared to stage an indefinite hunger strike. For the last 10 months, the authorities turned a deaf ear to all our appeals. We are now placed under various unreasonable restrictions - many family members and friends have been barred from visiting, our newspaper and reading materials are censored, correspondence confiscated and even our privacy to meet lawyers in private has been denied.
Free from fear
The ISA has not only taken away our freedom; the whole nation has been robbed of its dignity. As long as the ISA exists, all Malaysians will continue to fear. No one can be truly free to express their opinion and live in peace. The ISA is a license for the state to terrorise the people.
Our hunger strike hopes to highlight the cruelty of the ISA. Under such desperate and inhumane situations, we are forced to take risks. The hunger strike is a final resort and is the last remaining means to protest against our cruel injustice.
It is also a call to all Malaysians to join in the struggle to defend our freedom and democratic rights. Please come together to demand a future that is free from fear and persecution.
TIAN CHUA is the vice-president of opposition party Keadilan. The Malaysian government has ordered him to be detained without a trial under the ISA for two years. He is supposedly a threat to national security.
