Perkasa boss Ibrahim Ali has once again opened his big mouth. He now speaks like he is the Minister of Internal Security, or does he think he is Prime Minister designate? And mind you, Ibrahim Ali is privileged to be seated besides, of all people the Home Minister Hishamuddin himself commenting issues related to internal security and in particular the ISA. Is Hishamuddin acknowledging that Ibrahim Ali is the expert on matters of national security; hence the former need the latter’s expert advice? I think Hishamuddin is wrong to have Ibrahim Ali as his ‘consultant’ for there is many more experience and expert Malaysians on matters of security.
Ibrahim Ali was reported to have said that he wants future detentions without trial to bypass the courts and instead rely on a committee with credible people. He went further to say that national security goes above human rights and freedom of expression. He argued that using the court system (to deal with ISA cases) will take a long time. His statement is in reference to PM Najib’s proposal that the ISA will be repealed and to be replaced by two new laws. Hishamuddin thinks that Ibrahim Ali’s comment is credible, but I say to the former that I seriously beg to defer.
Look here Ibrahim Ali, what you are suggesting mirrors what a communist regime of old would do to scuttle dissenting voices. Communism is long gone where even the two largest communist nations in the world i.e. Russia and China have opened themselves out to the globalised world. I am not denying that both the countries does not have ‘ISA like policies’, but what I am saying is that we a nation that was built on democratic principles should move out from any notion of fear of the country being run over by communist-like elements.
I say to Ibrahim Ali that any form of threat (be they communist inspired, racial or religious threats) cannot survive in this country. So do not get ‘over drive’, excited and paranoid the moment you hear someone say something that sound anti government. And doesn’t Ibrahim Ali know that when the people are deprived of their basic rights, poverty prevalent and abuses rampant, this situation becomes more dangerous that a communist threat? Look at what happened to the North African Muslim states of recent times. The people revolted and threw out their government, and do we not want to learn anything from it?
You and I know that the ISA is a colonial legacy meant to defeat the communist threat then. The British saw the need to legislate such punitive laws because there was real physical threat from the MCP and its sympathizers towards the security and safety of the country. With the end of the first Malayan Emergency and the resurgence of the insurgency, the ISA continued to be enforced, and rightly so. But the situation today is so different after the final surrender of the MCP in 1989. What we have today is merely a friction of the real threat faced by us throughout the Malayan Emergency and the period of the Insurgency. Now, even raising religious and racial issues is considered a threat to national security and this demands the ISA to be applied. Words seem to be more dangerous than weapons itself.
I think Ibrahim Ali’s comment and proposal is dangerous to the safety and security of the country, and if Hishamuddin does heed to the former’s ‘advice’, I would then ask Hishamuddin to resign and have Ibrahim Ali take over the Home Ministry.
CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION
Ibrahim Ali was reported to have said that he wants future detentions without trial to bypass the courts and instead rely on a committee with credible people. He went further to say that national security goes above human rights and freedom of expression. He argued that using the court system (to deal with ISA cases) will take a long time. His statement is in reference to PM Najib’s proposal that the ISA will be repealed and to be replaced by two new laws. Hishamuddin thinks that Ibrahim Ali’s comment is credible, but I say to the former that I seriously beg to defer.
Look here Ibrahim Ali, what you are suggesting mirrors what a communist regime of old would do to scuttle dissenting voices. Communism is long gone where even the two largest communist nations in the world i.e. Russia and China have opened themselves out to the globalised world. I am not denying that both the countries does not have ‘ISA like policies’, but what I am saying is that we a nation that was built on democratic principles should move out from any notion of fear of the country being run over by communist-like elements.
I say to Ibrahim Ali that any form of threat (be they communist inspired, racial or religious threats) cannot survive in this country. So do not get ‘over drive’, excited and paranoid the moment you hear someone say something that sound anti government. And doesn’t Ibrahim Ali know that when the people are deprived of their basic rights, poverty prevalent and abuses rampant, this situation becomes more dangerous that a communist threat? Look at what happened to the North African Muslim states of recent times. The people revolted and threw out their government, and do we not want to learn anything from it?
You and I know that the ISA is a colonial legacy meant to defeat the communist threat then. The British saw the need to legislate such punitive laws because there was real physical threat from the MCP and its sympathizers towards the security and safety of the country. With the end of the first Malayan Emergency and the resurgence of the insurgency, the ISA continued to be enforced, and rightly so. But the situation today is so different after the final surrender of the MCP in 1989. What we have today is merely a friction of the real threat faced by us throughout the Malayan Emergency and the period of the Insurgency. Now, even raising religious and racial issues is considered a threat to national security and this demands the ISA to be applied. Words seem to be more dangerous than weapons itself.
I think Ibrahim Ali’s comment and proposal is dangerous to the safety and security of the country, and if Hishamuddin does heed to the former’s ‘advice’, I would then ask Hishamuddin to resign and have Ibrahim Ali take over the Home Ministry.
CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION
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