Political Imprisonments and detentions – a symptom of failing states
The signs of a failed state is when it has disintegrated to a point where basic conditions and responsibilities of a overeign government no longer function properly.
It also means that the state has been rendered ineffective in protecting it's citizens' safety from tyrants' immoral, inhumane and oppressive abuse of government institutions.
It is even more tragic, when such conditions of failure and disintegration is portrayed as norms and the necessities by those who wield power, using fear as the currency to impose their hegemony.
These are conditions that Malaysia manifests. My arrest and detention, based on totally unfounded and fabricated allegations is but a small glimpse of the injustice prevalent in Malaysia. Some even say that it is the overture to what is likely to be a mass crackdown on legitimate dissenters, justice seeking democratic fighters, and peace loving humanists who love their nation.
The justice system, constituted to protect and defend the people from tyranny, proved itself to be compromised by the powers that be. This was apparent when the police was granted further remand to detain me, when the riots I allegedly spearheaded, never materialised and there was not an iota of evidence to support even my arrest, much less my detention.
My 48 hour detention and allegations of rioting however, is relatively insignificant compared to fellow Malaysian and prominent activist, Ms Maria Chin Abdullah.
Her ability to mobilise hundreds and thousands of people to peacefully demonstrate in calling for Clean, Free and fair elections through the 'Bersih 5' movement struck fear in the autocratic loins of the ruling regime. That resulted in her solitary detention in the worst of conditions, under a newly enacted archaic law enabling her to be detained without trial for 28 days. She was detained for 10 days.
The said law that Maria was detained under, is the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012. It was articulated as a necessary legislation to combat rising terrorism, an argument that Malaysians at large could not agree with.
Despite vehemently strong critique from the Malaysian opposition movement as well as civil society, the law was bulldozed majoritarianistically by the ruling regime. Maria's detention makes it abundantly clear that the initial objections to the law were valid. The objections were precisely based on the ruling regime's half a century long track record of abusing laws like this to terrorise political adversaries.
Though Maria, my fellow detainees and I, may be free in body from the metal bars of inhumane jail cells, the trumped up allegations of rioting still hangs over me; we are not cleared of potential charges and further proceedings. We are on bail; presumably the ruling regime's large dose of fear injected directly into our blood streams, to ward us off speaking up against them.
The Malaysian ruling regime's game of fear is but a small part of the oppression that is running riot in the lives of ordinary Malaysians. Sadly, it is also but one of many regimes out there in this world of ours, that is doing exactly the same to their people, our fellow human beings.
Whilst I cannot protect myself and my fellow Malaysians from the tyrants in my own country, let alone save the thousands of political prisoners the world over, we as a progressive family has a responsibility to act in solidarity.
The genesis of our movement was based on the notion of organising workers at an international level to transcend and uprise above and over the capitalists which were only organised at at the national level.
We are uniquely positioned, created, organised and mobilised to do just that in the fight against tyrants who terrorise the freedom of activists and freedom lovers.
I as a Malaysian must reverse the soaring tide of my nation being taken towards being a failed state; to do that, I need your help. I as the IUSY president, am calling for your help, to exercise our spirit of internationalism, to free all political prisoners and to disable all instruments that enables political detention and imprisonment, in Malaysia, and the rest of the world.
And do that we must. Do that, we will. We progressives don't threaten, we promise.
