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ISA, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RECENT PAST

The following article, which was written for an international conference recently in Bangkok, has been published in Suara PRM. It is reproduced here in connection with the Human Rights Day.

By Dr Syed Husin Ali

The Malaysian State is becoming increasingly authoritarian. Although regular elections are held to elect parliament, yet genuine democracy and justice have been slowly reduced to naught, making the government almost dictatorial. Power is concentrated almost in the hands of PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has ruled for twenty years. The three important pillars of democracy, namely the judiciary, media and police have been reduced to becoming no more than tools to be manipulated by the leader for his own advantage and to perpetrate his rule.

During the last half a year the government, using the police, have arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) nearly thirty reformist and political activists from opposition political parties as well as from the NGO. Several youthful leaders of the Justice Party (keADILan), involved with open politics and exercising their rights to organise and participate in peaceful assemblies or demonstrations, have been arrested and subsequently served the order of detention for two years without trial under the ISA by the Home Minister. The police arbitrarily accused them of being involved in illegal attempts to topple the government by force.

In addition, a number of equally young activists from the Islamic Party (PAS) have received similar order of detention. They were accused of being involved in a militant Islamic organisation, dubbed as KMM, again alleged with the familiar objective of trying to bring down the government by illegal means. In both cases, the police and the Home Ministry have not provided an iota of evidence to support their actions. They feel safe to do so, knowing that the detainees cannot resort to the court of law, and that they can extend the detention order indefinitely after every two years.

To stop any party or organisation from organising protests against or giving explanations on the unjust actions of the government, the police have now banned public gatherings or rallies by opposition parties (but not the government ones). Any gathering attended by more than four persons can be considered illegal in the eyes of the police, and those involved, even for purpose of giving talks in private land or homes, have been arrested or faced with stern actions.

At the same time, while opposition views and activities are denied access through the government owned or controlled media, the Home Ministry has banned several tabloids (such as Detik, Ekslusif and Wasilah) that courageously take independent (not even anti-government) positions, set limits to the publication of opposition newspapers, and refuse publishing permits to some opposition parties. The government is also riding high in dominating the judiciary, since the days Mahathir succeeded to remove the Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas and three judges, who were known to be quite open and independent minded.

Following the terrorist attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, and the formation of the US-led coalition against terrorism, Mahathir has been trying to take advantage of the situation. For a long time his government has been criticised locally and overseas for the use and abuse of the ISA, which is considered to violate fundamental human rights. Mahathir appears to make a breakthrough in establishing better relations with the US, by condemning the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and supporting the international co-operation to fight against terrorism.

He is trying hard to convince critics among his people and in the West, particularly the US, that the use of the ISA is justifiable because it is aimed at curbing so-called “terrorism” in the country. In fact, to defend the ISA, the government-controlled media are spreading the Malaysian government propaganda that the US is trying to imitate it by introducing an act similar to the draconian ISA for the purpose of combating terrorism. But the truth of the matter is that the ISA is being used presently, as it has often been used in the past, to spread the psychology of fear among the people, and weaken the opposition in order to perpetrate the rule of the government in power.

The present situation political situation in Malaysia certainly did not come out of the blue. Many political developments in the past have helped to shape it. It is not possible here to present a comprehensive treatise tracing all these developments. What I intend to do is to focus only a few historical “happenings” which I consider to be highly relevant in influencing to shape Malaysian politics today. I concentrate on independence, Indonesian confrontation, 13th May racial conflict, Baling peasant “uprise”, Operation Lalang and the Anwar saga.

1. Merdeka (Independence)

Malaysia (then Malaya) gained independence from the British in 1957. At the beginning, led mainly by the MNP (Malayan Nationalist Party) and CPM (Communist Party of Malaya), the struggle was for total independence, free from colonial vestiges in the political, economic, social and other spheres. Theirs followed a tradition that manifested itself in antagonistic means of struggle against the British colonialists.

In 1948, following guerilla attacks in rubber plantations by members of the CPM, the British declared a state of Emergency. Both parties and a number of smaller others were declared illegal, and thousands of their leaders and members were arrested and detained for years without trial. Some members of the MNP later joined and cooperated with CPM members who had gone into the jungle (or underground).

A political vacuum was thus created. The British encouraged some Malay bureaucrats serving under colonial administration to form UMNO, which the British supported. With colonial encouragement too the MCA, led largely by businessmen, was formed. Together with the MIC, which had existed earlier under the leadership of Indian professionals, they formed the Alliance.

The Alliance followed the tradition of struggle that was non-antagonistic, in fact collaborating with theBritish in the fight against the communists.

It was willing to negotiate for political independence that allowed for continued dominant British role in the economic and military spheres especially. It was to the Alliance that the British rulers handed over independence (Merdeka).

Tunku Abdul Rahman, the UMNO leader who led the Alliance campaign for Merdeka, promised not only to release the detained nationalists, but also to abrogate the emergency regulation and replace it with another law. But three years after Merdeka, the Tunku introduced the ISA, which contains all the draconian powers of the Emergency, particularly arbitrary detention without trial.

Contrary to his promise, he retained and never abrogated the emergency regulation. The ISA exists until now, in fact, made worse with several obnoxious amendments, like mandatory death sentence for possession of arms and denial of habeas corpus. As for the emergency regulation, it is still very much with us. In fact, at present there are four emergency declarations that exist simultaneously with the ISA.

2. Malaysia and Indonesian Confrontation

At the beginning of the sixties, Tunku broached the idea of forming Malaysia, consisting of Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and Brunei. The opposition parties in Malaya then, especially the Socialist Front (SF) and the PAS opposed this project. They considered it as a neo-colonial project of Britain and the US, to turn Malaysia into a “huge floating battleship” that could point its guns at Indonesia, then under the strongly anti-imperialist President Sukarno, and Vietnam, whose southern half was waging a liberation struggle against US imperialism.

In 1963 Malaysia was formed and subsequently Sukarno declared Konfrontasi against it. Several Malayan opposition leaders were accused of collaborating with Indonesia and planning to establish an exile government. These allegations, though not fully proven, were used to legitimise the arrests of hundreds of leaders and members of SF, PAS and some other smaller parties, and their subsequent detentions under the ISA, for long periods without trial.

Meanwhile, as has been exposed now with revealing documentary proofs, the

British and US governments, through their diplomatic and intelligence operatives under the CIA particularly, helped Sukarno’s opponents, especially those in the army, to overthrow the president. This they succeeded in doing after a massive massacre of about a million people suspected or accused of being communists.

Meanwhile, in Singapore Premier Lee Kuan Yew waged the “battle for merger”. After detaining more than a hundred leaders and cadres of the opposition, particularly from the Barisan Sosialis (BS), he forced a referendum that gave the people no choice but to support Singapore’s entry into Malaysia.

Ironically, about a couple of years later, the Tunku, who was personally dissatisfied with Lee’s repeated antics to oppose the Malaysian government and cause inter-ethnic conflicts, booted Singapore out of Malaysia.

It is interesting to note that in Vietnam the communists and the liberation forces finally triumphed over the US. But in Indonesia, as we know, General Suharto became president, and his military regime was strongly backed by the US for more than 30 years. Together with Sukarno’s overthrow, a number of radical political parties associated with or supporting him were closed down. In Singapore, the progressive or leftist political and labour movements were crippled, after their political parties were practically outlawed and their leaders incarcerated in jail for long years.

The same happened in Malaysia. The emergency declaration together with the ISA were brutally and effectively used to ban or curtail opposition political parties and detain hundreds of their leaders or members. The demise or weakening of progressive multiethnic political parties, such as the SF, which was made up of the Labour Party (LPM) and the People’s Party (PRM), opened the way for narrow ethnic and religious politics to rear their ugly heads in Malaysia.

3. Racial Conflicts: 13th May Incident

On several occasions, in various parts of this country, racial tensions have led to conflicts resulting in untold deaths and destruction. During British colonialism the country was open to foreign immigrants, largely Chinese, Indians and Indonesians. A plural society emerged here. The various ethnic groups were not only separated socially and culturally, but they also had different and often conflicting economic and political interests.

Colonialism took advantage of this to carry out the notorious “divide and rule” policy. In fact this colonial policy was continued and perpetrated by the local ruling elite after independence.

One of the worst inter-ethnic outbreaks experienced in this country occurred for a number of days beginning 13th of May 1969, and for that reason it has often been referred to as the 13th May Incident. Conflicts were confined mainly to Kuala Lumpur (and Selangor). Actually it began just a day after the general elections. During the long election campaigns, much ethnic heat was generated through claims and counter claims of ethnic injustices, discriminations, exploitations and uneven concentration of economic and political powers. The circumstances were already created, and they were waiting only for an event to cause an ethnic eruption.

The election results were the worst for the Alliance’s since independence.

It so happened that in Selangor there was a tie between the opposition

parties, which happened to be mainly Chinese-based, and the ruling Alliance, which was largely dominated by the Malay party, UMNO. There were strong racial overtones in the post-elections rhetoric and celebrations. The Selangor UMNO, led by a fiercely racial Chief Minister, was terribly afraid of loosing power, as jeered crudely by some Chinese supporters of the opposition. The belief is that some leaders of the ruling party precipitated racial killing in order to invite a state of emergency.

Indeed emergency was soon declared and the Parliament as well as the State Legislatures were suspended for about two years. A National Operations Council (NOC) was set up with the Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak as Director and made up of a small number of leaders from the government, military and also the bureaucracy. A New Economic Policy (NEP) was instituted, with the prime objectives of alleviating poverty and restructuring society, to promote national unity.

A National Consultative Council (NCC) was also formed, including representatives from government and opposition parties, as well as some professionals, academicians and leading citizens as members. When civilian rule was later restored, the Alliance was expanded to form the National Front (Barisan Nasional – BN), which accommodated several of the opposition parties that participated in the NCC.

4. Peasant Uprise; Baling Incident

Towards the end of 1974, a number of “hunger marches” were carried out by thousands of rural folk in Baling, a small town in the northern part of the country. At that time the price of rubber had fallen to a steep low. Many rubber tappers did not earn enough incomes to feed their families regularly with rice, the staple food.

The irony was that at this time Parliament passed a regulation to increase the monthly allowances of its members. To make matters worse, there was widespread rumour that a couple of children had died after eating certain poisonous tubers that were not properly processed, because their parents could not afford to buy rice.

The people of Baling, consisting mainly of peasants, continued to hold daily demonstrations for a number of days. There was almost total blackout in the media about these “hunger marches”. When students in the University of Malaya got wind of them, they in turn organised peaceful meetings in support of the peasants. Soon more students from various institutions of higher learning joined, culminating in a series of demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya. As usual the police used water cannons and canes to disperse them.

There were at least two significant things about this development. Firstly, the “hunger marches” were participated mainly by poor Malays protesting against a Malay dominated government. Secondly, it was significant that large numbers of students from all races came out in support of the poor peasants, thus forging a very important alliance that never happened before.

The conflicts were not racial but bore a class content.

Of course the government did not like it and so came down with a heavy hand.

Following a huge demonstration in the centre of the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, more than a thousand students were rounded up by police. Most of them were released after one or two days, but over forty students and lecturers (including Anwar Ibrahim and myself) were detained under the ISA. Almost immediately the police entered the university and occupied it for a few days.

About two years later, not long after the death of Tun Razak, the second Premier, there was power struggle within the leadership of UMNO. The ambitious Home Minister then, was plotting to be Deputy PM and clear the way to succeed Tun Hussein Onn to become the fourth PM. In Singapore at this time, there was a crackdown of a number of people alleged to be “Marxists”. Some of them confessed of having connections in Malaysia.

Soon there was a similar crackdown under ISA in Malaysia. A number of people, including two Deputy Ministers, senior newspaper editors and leaders of the opposition were detained. They were accused of having links with communists merely because, among other things, they warned of possible domino effects on Southeast Asia, following the defeat of US in Vietnam. The Home Minister, tried to stage almost a “coup” by trying implicate the present PM, who was then DPM, with those arrested and also with the communist underground and by so doing hoping to remove him from office. But he failed.

5. Operasi Lalang Arrests

Internal conflicts within the UMNO leadership continued, but with different actors. At the beginning of the eighties, Malaysia was undergoing a serious recession, which badly affected the prices of agricultural commodities and the incomes of their rural producers. Owing to the economic downturn, there was not enough “cake” to go around; it was divided mainly among those close

to the government top leadership. A lot of discontent was voiced through leaders of a certain faction of the UMNO leadership who were deprived of any share of the cake.

The economic downturn also gave rise to dissatisfactions that were racial in nature. It was easy for the Malays to blame the Chinese for the difficult economic conditions because of the latter’s perceived economic control, just as it was not difficult for the Chinese to blame the Malays, whom they saw as being responsible for government and its discriminatory policies.

The inter-ethnic tensions became exacerbated by the growing controversy on Chinese educational rights, and the apparent attempt by the government, which was perceived as being pro-Malay, to control the administration of Chinese schools. At the same time, as the government became more repressive by introducing new acts, like the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and Society’s Act, many NGOs became openly critical of government.

The situation became very uncertain when his Finance Minister, Tengku Razaleigh, challenged PM Mahathir as President in an election held during an UMNO General Assembly in 1986. Mahathir won with a small margin of 37 votes.

But, following a suit that was brought up owing to the presence of unqualified branches in the assembly, the court took the decision to close down UMNO. Mahathir quickly moved to form a new UMNO to replace the old one. Internal conflicts finally led to the split of UMNO.

In order to perpetrate itself, the government again resorted to the ISA by launching “Operasi Lalang” in 1987 to arrest not only some politicians from the government and opposition, but also educational, social and religious (particularly Christian) activists. The faction in UMNO that split later formed a party and established a new opposition coalition to face the elections in 1990. Interestingly, for the first time, this provided a good opportunity for developing a “two front” system, which was multi-ethnic. But unfortunately the opposition front cracked, partly under the strain of ethnic politics. Finally, the splinter UMNO group rejoined its parent organisation.

6. The Anwar Saga

In the middle of 1997, the Asian economic crisis began to be felt in Malaysia and affected the ruling party. Mahathir saw his Deputy Anwar Ibrahim, who had different ideas from him on how to overcome the economic downturn, as mounting a challenge against him. On the bases of allegations for corruption and sexual misdemeanour, Anwar was brought to court. At the same time Mahathir took the opportunity of removing Anwar from government as well as the party. Anwar accused Mahathir of conspiracy. Mahathir acted entirely on the basis of allegations made against Anwar by a woman of doubtful repute and repeated in a book that did not provide any shred of evidence. The affidavits against Anwar were made public by the police even before they reached the court. The judge blatantly showed his own bias, by accepting prosecution evidence even when the time and place relating to Anwar’s alleged sodomy was changed three times. Now Anwar is suffering under a 15-year jail sentence.

About two weeks after his dismissal, Anwar launched a series of public campaign all over the country, which drew enormous number of people. He accused Mahathir of cronyism, nepotism and corruption, and launched the Reformasi movement, quite similar to the one in Indonesia. On the night of 20th September 1999 the police arrested Anwar for alleged criminal acts.

That same night he was beaten almost to death by the head of the police force.

The law required him to be brought to court within 24 hours, but because of his serious injury, the police used their power to detain him under the ISA,so that he could be held initially for up to sixty days without trial. Two coalitions of opposition political parties together with some NGOs, called GAGASAN and GERAK, were formed to oppose the draconian ISA and the unjust treatment meted out to Anwar. Within the next few days a number of Anwar’s lieutenants and supporters were also detained under the ISA. But almost all of them were released within the first two months.

Owing largely to the strong campaign mounted especially by GERAK, Anwar’s ISA detention was revoked after a week, and he was brought to court to face criminal charges. But Anwar’s black eye was very clear for the world to see. This created uproar among the people. For a number of weeks peaceful demonstrations were held by thousands of people who had spontaneously continued the reform movement that was begun by Anwar. The police suppressed them by resorting brutal means and thus provoked some violence. Hundreds of people were arrested.

Anwar’s followers initially formed an NGO called ADIL, and later established a political party known as the Justice Party (KeADILan) in 1999. Soon it took the initiative of calling a meeting of the main opposition parties to form a coalition to be known as the Alternative Front (BA) consisting of PAS, Keadilan, DAP and PRM. This front was multi-ethnic and multi-religious in composition. Again there was an opportunity of establishing a two-front system in Malaysian politics.

The BA produced a common manifesto entitled “Towards a Just Malaysia” and stood united against the ruling coalition (BN) in the 1999 general elections. It failed to deny BN two-thirds majority in Parliament. Now, owing to differences between the DAP (Democratic Action Party) and PAS over the issue of Islamic State, the DAP has decided to leave the BA, and thus weakened it and at the same time strengthened the BN government.

Conclusion

The political history of Malaysia is interspersed with almost regular repressive periods during which the ISA and/or the emergency regulations are used to detain people and curb fundamental freedoms. Very often these periods are preceded by or coincide with growing economic crisis, inter-ethnic conflict and split within the ruling elite which can threaten the government losing power.

By its own admission the government has found the ISA as one of the most effective instruments for undermining growing opposition as well as public dissent for perpetrating itself. The use of the ISA to detain individuals is always justified by the need to protect public order and security. But in actual fact it is often abused to weaken the opposition as well as public dissent.

During interrogations, the police always try to coerce detainees through methodical physical and mental tortures into confessing whatever they have been accused of and also to cooperate with the government or police. The detainees are considered to have been “rehabilitated” when they submit to do so. With the rehabilitation, they are likely to be released early. The stubborn ones will have to languish in detention for much longer periods.

Indeed, as has always happened, the police, obviously under the direction of the government, always try to link the alleged activities of those already detained with opposition parties and other groups, in order to undermine their position and even lay the grounds for ultimately banning them. Such “dirty tricks” have been used before, for example to destroy the once influential SF, and there is a danger that they will now be used against the existing opposition parties, following the government desperate attempt to restore its waning influence.

The ISA was originally introduced for the declared purpose of fighting militant communism. With the global decline of communism and the end of communist insurgency in Malaysia, it has actually outlived its purpose.

Further, there are numerous laws in this country that can deal with all kinds of illegal activities, such as possession and use of firearms, sedition, demonstrations and so forth. But the government still prefers the ISA because it helps them to get away with false allegations and not having to prove their case in the open court.

The ISA is obviously violates fundamental human rights. Above all it is against the teachings of major religions that do not allow for unjust punishment by detaining people indefinitely without trial. But Mahathir, who has now lost majority support from the Malays, the traditional base of UMNO, has threatened and in fact promised to continue using the ISA.

There are signs that Mahathir will use the present US-led anti-terrorist campaigns to justify him to continue using the ISA against all those whom he considers to be undesirable because they threaten his own position of power. He can just easily brand them as “militants”, “terrorists” and a threat to public security. In the past, thousands of people have been detained without trial because they were accused of being comminist or conniving with communist. But now, hundreds may be arrested and detained because they are blamed to be involved in ‘reformasi’ and ‘millitant’ “Islamic” movements.






        
Ke atas    Balik Menu Utama    Tarikh artikal diterbitkan : 8 Disember 2001

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