Monday, September 15, 2008

of ISA crackdown

On last Saturday, I was supposed to be monitoring the Indigenous People's walk to Istana in celebration of the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP). Later in the afternoon Mentari Project voulnteers and me were supposed to be having a meeting with ATMAH to discuss on our future plans of collaboration. These had to be canceled due to ISA crackdown on three Malaysian citizen namely RPK, TK and THC.

Appalled and saddened by turns of event, I just couldn't feel any worse.

Late that night while I was having my kuey tiaw at Mali's with Sasha and Far, I got an sms, calling all NGOs for an emergency meeting the next Sunday morning. I could hardly sleep that night thinking what would happen to this country of mine.

ISA has always been religiously, morally and legally wrong. There’s no two-way about it as the principle of justice is absolute.

i have rather mixed feelings reading Ms Tan Hoon Cheng's experience, being detained for 18 hours under the draconian ISA. I could hardly imagine the feeling of being stripped off your rights to defend your dignity as a human being. I could hardly imagine the feeling of helplessness, knowing how oppressive and abusive a law can be.

It has been a long walk...and all that is left for us to do is keep on walking.

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