[asia-apec 741] Opposition to Malaysia's ISA

[GABRIELA]

From: BAYAN <bayan at iname.com>

Solidarity Message to the People of Malaysia 
Fighting the Internal Security Act

BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance) in the Philippines joins the growing number
of outraged groups and individuals all over the world in vehemently
protesting the recent arrest and illegal detention of 126 persons,
including Anwar Ibrahim, in Kuala Lumpur last September 21.  

BAYAN condemns the brutal dispersal of thousands of  people peacefully
protesting the government crackdown on its critics and dissenters. The
Mahathir government claims that these people were engaged in "riots and
violent acts."  Can clapping one's hands and chanting now be categorized as
violent acts? 
The absurdity of this charge reveals the Mahathir regime's paranoid
fear of its own citizens massing up and  venting their long repressed
anger and discontent against an unjust government.

We in Bayan note that these arrests are taking place at a time when
thousands of Malaysians are jobless or have been displaced from their
farm lands, are feeling the economic crisis and therefore are
understandably restive. The violations of civil liberties are justified in
the name of globalization.

At the same time, we are inspired by the fact that thousands of
Malaysians have been emboldened to take to the streets and demonstrate
their views and demands in spite of the serious risk of being arrested,
charged with violations of the dreaded Internal Security Act (ISA) and
detained indefinitely without trial. 

The (ISA) is a draconian measure instituted to preempt the moves of any
individual/group even BEFORE he/she/it even considers protesting or
expressing  legitimate grievances against the government. What kind of
political system is this that does not want to allow its people to think?

In the Philippines under the martial rule of the US-Marcos
dictatorship, thousands of Filipinos were thrown into military camps by
virtue of  a presidential decree called PDA (Preventive Detention Act)
which the late dictator patterned after the infamous ISA. Marcos's
target was to  stifle dissent emanating from a majority of the people
who were straining under the dual yoke of political repression and
economic hardship.  The PDA was an instrument wielded by the dictator
Marcos to suppress the growing anti-dictatorship movement.  But the
Filipino people's resistance (both armed and popular struggles)
throughout the 14 years of Marcos' rule  weakened the dictatorship
until it was overthrown in a popular uprising in 1986.  

The Malaysian people are once again at a crossroad in their political
life as they confront their government on the issue of civil liberties
and the financial and economic crisis, as well.  Powerfully ranged
against them are the repressive political instruments that is the ISA,
combined with police brutality and the possible instigation of Mahathir
loyalists and lumpen gangs to riot in order to sow confusion and
disorder and later on, to wholly blame it on the leaders of peoples'
organizations, NGO workers, personages, etc.

BAYAN joins freedom-loving peoples of the world in calling for the
release of all ISA detainees, a stop to police brutality and harassment
of protesters and their relatives and friends.  

BAYAN likewise calls on the Malaysian government to respect the rights
of Malaysian workers, peasants, urban dwellers and other sectors to
hold peaceful assemblies to express their legitimate concerns about how
the government has been ruling them.

Above all, BAYAN strongly urges the repeal of the Internal Security
Act, the scourge of freedom-loving people in Malaysia, and calls on its
people not to be cowed by the intensifying campaign of terror unleashed
by the Mahathir government against critics of his rule.
 
In 1987 when there was a wave of arrest and detention of more than a
hundred  activists, NGO workers, individuals who were charged with
violating the Internal Security Act of Malaysia on an absurd witch-hunt
campaign against Malaysians who, according to the government, were
getting in touch with Filipino "communists", BAYAN then stood in
solidarity with the Malaysian people. Rallies were held
in front of the Malaysian embassy and through the mass media, BAYAN
conducted an information campaign about the ISA as an instrument used
by the Malaysian government against its own people.

After ll years, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan once again links arms
with the Malaysian people in their right to organize themselves to
fight for their basic democratic rights.  


Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
(New Patriotic Alliance)
September 24, 1998
Quezon City, Philippines