Are we to think ISA 6 are like IRA cells?
Sure Hishamuddin Rais and the Keadilan activists may hold virulent beliefs on the role of the State vis-a-vis individual freedoms, the record of the present government and its role in the political demise of the previous deputy premier.
One or other amongst them may have even attempted to mobilise their supporters and the public to rally around the banner of anti-government sentiment, either through the dissemination of anti-government literature, public gatherings, or even localised street protests aimed at disrupting everyday life.
But here's the crunch - are we seriously expected to believe that these actions alone, and indeed the wider beliefs behind them, constitute a threat to the national security and peace in Malaysia, which deserves their detention without trial under the ISA?
Are we to understand that their alleged actions and the motives behind them can be held on par with the anti-government terrorism displayed in countries such as Spain (with the Basque separatists), Turkey (with the Kurd Nationalists) or indeed (and I'm surprised no one has highlighted this yet), the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the UK? If so, it stretches the credibility of the government's position on the detainees' alleged threat to national security to breaking point.
Speaking from my own experience of growing up in the UK, the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland which spilled into the mainland UK is etched into my memory. Who could forget the IRA's campaign of violence perpetrated not only on the British military establishment (whom they considered as 'occupying forces') but also innocent citizens of the UK? Remember the bombing campaigns in the 1980s and the early 1990s?
Let us be clear, the IRA (and also read any other separatist group throughout Europe) believes itself to be a highly organised army.It has a defined hierarchy with divisional heads and grassroots cells. It views its victims (whether military or civilians) as 'collateral targets' in a guerilla war of attrition waged against the British government, which in the ultimate analysis, it wishes to overthrow.
But most frighteningly, could anyone on the street in the UK identify with certainty who the IRA cells/soldiers were? Could they have logged onto the Internet and read opinions written by the bombers, with their identities and political affiliations laid bare for all? The point is, no. They could have been the person that sat next to you on the tube, or whom you walked past in the park - they could have been anyone.
The British government sought to tackle this threat to its national security through the introduction of preventative legislation, primarily through the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The Act provided for detention without trial clauses which, even under the most draconian interpretation of any incumbent head of the Home Office, would fall short of the ISA.
Reason? The emphasis was to detain the alleged offenders at Her Majesty's pleasure through trial and conviction and not through discretion, and even then, miscarriages of justice prevailed. Case in point, the conviction of the 'Guildford Four' primarily on confessions obtained through illegal means.
My thought for the day: Could one credibly attribute the detention of Hisham and the Keadilan members purely on the grounds of their alleged significance in threatening the national security/peace of the people of Malaysia?
Do they, in your readership's mind, really look like cold, calculated soldiers willing to take other people's lives for their beliefs? If they are soldiers, then surely taking such a public profile all this while, has done their alleged campaign of underground anti-government terrorism a huge disservice.
Sure the Keadilan internees look like overgrown sixth-formers with Bolshie views to boot, and Hisham, well - I think he's played the 'radical chic' look to the point of clich (pony tail, goatee and beret, for goodness' sake!).
But cells/soldiers deserving of preventative measures under the ISA? I may yet be proved wrong, but not in my opinion.
Smells like there's something else less tangible which is being snuffed out by the ISA - like their point of view.
