Hishamuddin Rais (malaysiakini columnist and filmmaker) is my friend. We were in school together. Right now he is being locked up because someone in power says he is dangerous to society if let loose.

Nobody tells me how dangerous he really is or what he has actually done. But in all the years that I knew him, I have not known him to be beyond simply being expressive of his rather active mind and a strong conscience to boot.

But I guess someone in power knows better, so I was prepared to give the government the benefit of the doubt.

A few weeks back, the highest court in the land said that his detention was done in bad faith by the police. Simply translated, I take that to mean that he should not have been arrested in the first place and therefore his detention was wrong. Yet he was not released.

Later someone in power said Hishamuddin will continue to be detained because he is still a danger to society. And I am still not told what Hishamuddin actually did that merits his continued detention.

I cannot figure out how much more a menace to society Hishamuddin really is if compared with the rascals and scoundrels that have caused our treasury to be nearly empty, or the corrupt men who have destroyed the moral fabric of our society and our trust in government institutions.

I know I should know better than to make sweeping accusations about these scoundrels, and that they deserve to be charged first and then brought to trial. And then and only then can the truth be established. So how come my friend Hishamuddin is not entitled to all that?

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the other day that there is no more fair play in this world. Some powerful people do not like Yasser Arafat and what he stands for. So they treat him badly. Mahathir made many phone calls to appeal to many powerful people, but all in vain.

In the same spirit, I want to make a phone call to Mahathir about Hishamuddin. I feel sure Mahathir will not disappoint me, being the international statesperson he is. Unless, of course, Mahathir does not like Hishamuddin, and that will be clear proof that there is no fair play in this world as he had lamented.

Hishamuddin Rais is my friend. There is nothing that bad that he has been proven to have done that will make me feel any less proud of screaming those words for the world to hear.