Home Minister, Syed Hamid said that Tan was detained because her life was in danger. If so, why was Anwar Ibrahim not detained under the ISA when he sought protection in the Turkish embassy when he claimed that his life was threatened. Why did the police not detain Saiful Bukhari Azlan under the ISA for his life was also threatened when he reported of being sodomized by Anwar. Why was PI Bala not detained under the ISA when he made a statutory declaration of Najib’s involvement in the Altantuya case?
The Aftermath
In the aftermath of the political tsunami, there was both fear and joy among the rakyat. The were joyous that Makhal Sakthi or People’s Power is alive and that they can make a difference, but they also feared the specter of 13th May becoming a reality. One can sense fear on the streets if one goes to work or shopping in KL in the first few days after the elections. Traffic on the streets was reduced, shopping malls were eerily quite.
However, racial riots never materialized. It was then realized that Malaysian’s have learned from history. They have matured with the country, and they can finally bury the ghost of 13th May 1969.
Calls for Abdullah to step down came firing from all angles within UMNO. His strongest opponent came from his predecessor Dr. Mahathir. Tengku Razaleigh called for an Emergency General Meeting but was gagged and shot down by Abdullah’s people. UMNO party elections were postponed from July to Dec 2008 and a transition plan for Najib to take on as PM in mid-2010. This is seen as a move by Abdullah to pacify calls for his resignation and to buy him time to implement his reforms. It’s a little too late for that.
Though racial riots never came to be, racial animosity has been brewing. The recent Permatang Pauh by-elections that saw the fashionable comeback of Anwar Ibrahim with a larger majority into Parliament after a 10 year exodus, had proven the continued disgusted sentiment of the rakyat towards BN and Abdullah. The results quashed the notion that the Mar 8 results was a “one-off thing”.
It was during this time that the Bukit Bendera UMNO chief angered the Chinese community over his remarks about them. Racial animosities have run high when Datuk Ahmad Ismail called the Chinese immigrants and showed no remorse over his statement. Chinese leaders and the opposition lambasted his racial remarks. Gerakan and MCA went to the extreme by severing all ties with Penang UMNO. They called on for harsh action to be taken against him.
Abdullah’s leadership was put to the test yet again. His indecisiveness and “tak apa” attitude had almost cost the country to run into amok and BN on the brink of collapse. It took Abdullah almost 3 weeks to decide on an action against Ahmad Ismail. Despite being stripped of all party post and suspension of his membership for three years, Ahmad Ismail showed no remorse and continues to uphold his remarks.
The spat of racial remarks had let to the detention of Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng under the ISA on Friday night. The ISA or Internal Security Act is a draconian law that allows the government to detain anyone without trial. Tan, 32 was detained because of her report on Ahmad’s racist statement in the daily. 16 hours after she was held captive, she was released from the ISA by the police.
Home Minister, Syed Hamid said that Tan was detained because her life was in danger. If so, why was Anwar Ibrahim not detained under the ISA when he sought protection in the Turkish embassy when he claimed that his life was threatened. Why did the police not detain Saiful Bukhari Azlan under the ISA for his life was also threatened when he reported of being sodomized by Anwar. Why was PI Bala not detained under the ISA when he made a statutory declaration of Najib’s involvement in the Altantuya case?
And why was Ahmad Ismail not detained under the ISA for it was he who made the racial remark and stoked racial animosity. The government cannot go on providing lame stupid excuses like it did in the past! People are far better informed and have access to information beyond the mainstream media in this day and age.
Can the government be anymore stupider than this? Why are they back tracking their own call to the press to report the truth and not be afraid of reporting the truth? This only exposes Abdullah’s flip flop leadership qualities and questions the man’s state of mind. Who does he surrounds himself with…a bunch of loonies?
Following that, Raja Petra Kamaraddin, editor of Malaysia Today had also been detained under the ISA for “insulting Malays, Muslims, and Islam” on his blog. He is well known for his no holds barred attitude towards the leaders of the country and is a staunch critic of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
DAP’s Seputeh MP Teresa Kok who is also assemblyman for Kinrara and a senior executive councilor in charge of investment, industry and trade have been picked up in connection with a residents petition in Puchong over a mosque. Two term former chief minister of Selangor, Khir Toyo (who was also incarcerated in the political tsunami) had allegedly accused Teressa of being involved. Despite her denying it and demanded an apology from Khir and the newspaper that reported it, she was still detained under the ISA.
One can deduce two things from the events above.
Firstly, this proves that the media is under full control of the ruling government. The mainstream media practices selective and biased reporting. Media freedom has been gagged with the use of ISA to intimidate anyone from writing or revealing anything that is against the government or put the ruling coalition in bad light.
Secondly, what we see may be a prelude to Ops Lalang II. In Ops Lalang I, many opposition leaders and members were detained under the ISA for raising racial sentiments over the appointment of Chinese heads from non-Chinese educated schools as headmasters.
Ops Lalang II may very well be the crackdown against opposition leaders for the imminent takeover of the government come this Sept 16. Abdullah Badawi is exercising the full extent of his raw power to thwart any attempts to oust him and destabilize his government.
Perhaps we may be seeing more arrests of opposition leaders or those who have been vocal against the government on the eve of Sept 16.
By then, chaos will reign supreme. There will be political, economical, and judiciary turmoil. The PM may invoke an emergency to suspend Parliament. All political elections and activities will be with held under Emergency law. Police will detain bloggers, citizens, politicians, and the likes who are defy emergency law and who pose a threat to national security. The country, already suffering from slow growth and facing recession will allow the government to divert the public’s attention to bread and butter issues.
THIS…would be the “Mother of All Crisis”.
IAG
