“The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free. That he is not free is apparent only to other people. His servitude is strictly objective.”
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited
Rational Malaysians understand that the state wants to keep M Indira Gandhi's kidnapped daughter Prasana Diksa away from her.
We understand this because, earlier in the case, the top brass of the police publicly stated (without any basis in law) that they did not want to be trapped between two different court orders.
We understand this because former inspector-general of police Abdul Hamid Bador claimed (with no basis in law) that he sought a “win-win situation” for the perpetrator of the crime and the victim, and that he knew where the kidnapper was.
This should not be in dispute.
Indira, after exhausting every legal avenue, which most times was against her, said, “My only hope is to go and plead to the public or for (my daughter) Prasana herself to contact me.”
In the end, hopefully during Indira’s lifetime, we will discover what happened to Prasana. We will discover how she grew up, how her upbringing shaped the woman she became, but most importantly, if she even knew that Indira was her mother.
Indoctrination
In this age of instant communication and the dissemination of information, it is difficult to believe that Prasana is unaware of what is transpiring around her.
Children these days are exposed to so much. They literally hold information about the world in the palm of their hands.
Children are wired to be recklessly curious and take unnecessary risks. The cold, hard truth is Prasana could have reached out if she wanted to, if there was any kind of normality in her life.
Years of poring through cases of kidnapped children and the psychological abuse and manipulation at the hands of their captors have led me to believe that Prasana could very well believe that her kidnapper is her saviour and that her mother is the person in the wrong.
Her kidnapper - her father, Riduan Abdullah - will tell her that even the police are on their side.
You only have to read the public comments of various IGPs to make this point. She will believe that even politicians are on her father’s side because they have not done anything to see her returned to her mother.
Willful blindness feeds the narrative
Indeed, the political class has made it very clear that they see no crime in this controversial case because if they did, there would be outrage in Parliament and in the press, as in so many other cases.
What her kidnappers will point to is that various prime ministers of this country have done nothing about this case.
The current prime minister knows that this is wrong. When he was opposition leader in 2013, he said that the position in Islam was that conversion could only occur with the consent of the mother.
As reported in the press, “There’s a specific case where the Prophet Muhammad sent a child back to the mother because the mother did not convert to Islam and only the father did so.”
Prasana was taken as an infant, and there will no doubt be women and girls in her life when growing up who would reinforce the narratives of her criminal father.
They would make her believe that she was saved from a life in a minority community which is routinely demonised by prominent political and religious personalities.
Who knows if Prasana is married and has a child of her own. Could Indira be a grandmother? This is one way to keep a young woman bound to the community that took her.
Criminology regarding these sorts of crimes, whether it involves cults or religious kidnapping all over the world, indicates that such things are possible.
Here in Malaysia, child marriages are an issue the political class has been grappling with for decades.
It would not surprise me if there are enablers who are average citizens conspiring to keep this child within Islam.
I do not think these people consider Riduan as some sort of religious martyr, but they believe that Indira’s daughter belongs to them and their faith.
She would believe that her kidnapper saved her soul because religion has played a defining role in how the state has managed this crime. This is not a controversial idea.
Social media radicalisation
In 2018, the Federal Court nullified the conversion of Indira’s children because it was carried out without her consent. What was Syariah Lawyers Association president Musa Awang’s response to this after the landmark ruling?
“There might be people who will take advantage (of the ruling) and abscond with the child and hide the child until the child decides (what religion they want to embrace).”
Social media is going to radicalise this kidnapped victim in ways that we cannot fathom.
Reading comments on social media, you will discover that while most non-Malays view this kidnapping as a transgression against a mother, there are many Muslims who have no sympathy for Indira.
They believe that her young daughter was saved from an idol-worshipping culture and from her race, which they define in the most racist of stereotypes.
These are not stereotypical religious people. These are educated people, some even Western-educated, who view Indira as some sort of racial and religious provocateur whose intent is to tarnish their religion by going against the rights of her husband.
The only assumptions I can make after years of following this case and studying the literature on the subject are that Prasana truly believes the narratives of her kidnapper, or she is kept in isolation and those around her are her jailors.
The latter would be a fate I believe even her mother would not want. - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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