LTTE 12 – why is this happening under Harapan?

“Furthermore, Dr Mahathir should be reminded … that he single-handed destroyed the independence, impartiality and professionalism not only of the judiciary, but also of other important national institutions like the police, the Election Commission, the anti-corruption agency and the civil service.”

– Lim Kit Siang, 2015

Suaram executive director D Sevan, at the protest for the release of the "LTTE 12" is correct when he claimed that the detentions were politically motivated. Well, I would argue that there is more to it than that. This is the reaction of the deep Islamic state to attacks against the always inspiring Zakir Naik by vocal members of the Indian community who have always been the long hanging fruit in the toxic race discourse of this country.

This narrative also conveniently targets the DAP because now, the far-right and the Islamic deep state have a shorthand legitimised by the state security apparatus to justify further narratives that the Malay community and Islam are under threat from hostile forces cultivated by homegrown extremists connected politically and thus able to influence policy in this country.

I naively believed that political operatives who had borne the brunt of the immoral state laws under the long Umno watch would endeavour to dismantle the instruments of the fascists at the first opportunity they got. This should be personal for them, right? I mean if the state depriving you of your liberty is not some sort of wake-up call, then what is? At the very least, certain Pakatan Harapan politicos would know what the families of these men are going through, right?

Instead, what we have here is the clucking of chicken hawks who suddenly see the wisdom of having repressive laws because of “political stability”. I give credit to Indian political operatives of the DAP for speaking out against the injustices of their own government, but sadly, the reality is that the LTTE 12 case has been consigned as an “Indian” issue instead of a national one.

The state has a habit of targeting minority communities and linking their political dissent with “terrorist organisations” to further narratives that national security is at risk by the pendatang. Lim Kit Siang was correct to point out the malfeasance of then attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail when he attempted to link Hindraf with the LTTE in the "Batu Caves 31" sham. It bears repeating:

"What was the justification for the attorney-general leading the attack on Hindraf for its alleged terrorist links? Yesterday, Gani said his linking Hindraf to the LTTE in his argument at the Shah Alam Sessions Court on Wednesday was based on a police report. He said: 'Somebody lodged a police report that there are grounds that these people have been going out to (establish) contact with this LTTE'."

And we now know that this allegation made against Hindraf was bogus, that the state was merely attempting to create a narrative of extremism within the Indian community because we now have some closely associated with Hindraf – P Waythamoorthy – who is now de facto minister of national unity and social wellbeing. But I guess this just proves that Dr Mahathir Mohamad would work with anyone.

With this in mind, can we take anything the state security apparatus and political operatives claim about the LTTE threat seriously? After all, we have had decades of mainstream power structures fabricating narratives that national security was under threat by groups dissenting against unjust laws of the regime.

All those years when we had these oppressive laws, at least we had an opposition that attempted to rage against these laws. With the “Malay” opposition we now have, these kinds of illegalities go unnoticed because nobody really cares what happens to members of minority communities, especially since BN is too preoccupied with demonstrating that it still has “Malay” support, while the MCA is determined to claw back Chinese support.

A recent example of how the state security apparatus is suspect in anything it does is the Rawang shootout – “The duelling narratives in the recent Rawang shootings are something Malaysians are used to. The family of the deceased have made serious allegations against the PDRM. Prima facie, it would seem that the PDRM is lying when it comes to the alleged criminal history of V Janarthanan and his stay in this country.”

So the question then becomes, how do Harapan political operatives – and let us forget Bersatu for the moment – not see the need to act decisively against these laws? How dare they turn a blind eye to what the state is doing, especially now that they have the power to do something?

The home affairs minister tells us to check the manifesto and we would understand that Harapan promised only to modify such laws or some such nonsense. Unfortunately for him, many things that Harapan political operatives say in public and what is said in that worthless manifesto are contradictory.

The prime minister says that he is "satisfied" with the way how the state security apparatus carried out these arrests and investigations, but as Lim Kit Saing reminded us in 2015, the old maverick is why we do not have independent institutions and fidelity to law in this country in the first place.

Ambiga Sreenevasan said that she could not answer why this is happening under the Pakatan Harapan government. I understand where she is coming from. Many Indians, especially those who for so long have been disenfranchised by the system, keep asking me the same thing.

This is made even worse by the fact that my articles are translated and passed around the community. The most glaringly “offensive” ones – as described by young Indian activists – are the ones where I lecture Harapan over making the old maverick interim prime minister.

After the racial and religious rhetoric coming from our Home Affairs Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, does anyone really believe him when he says, "The basic question is not on LTTE but police intelligence found there are elements of terrorism or possible terrorism in the probe into LTTE.”

If the state security apparatus had actionable intelligence, it would have acted without hesitation and would have professionally made its case to the public. In this instance, the courts are mired in procedural legerdemain while the LTTE 12 are rotting in detention with allegations of torture.

Most of us know why this is happening under Harapan.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan. - Mkini