ISA: The Weapon of the Weak

Friday, Sept 12th

1:10pm : Raja Petra arrested under ISA, less than a day after access to his Malaysia-Today site was restored by the government. They found a more effective way to shut the guy up.

8:40pm : Sin Chew reporter Tan Hoon Cheng, who broke the story on Ahmad Ismail, was arrested under ISA. Apparently the government followed Azhar Ibrahim's "advice" to "shoot the journalist", just not literally.

11:20pm : DAP's Teresa Kok, MP for Seputeh, assemblywoman for Kinrara, arrested under ISA. This is the lady who won her seat by the biggest margin - 37,000 votes - in the March 8th elections. She's also allegedly wanted the mosques in her area to "tone down" the azan recently, a charge she denies.

Will Ahmad Ismail be next? So the government can say they are being "fair"? Ahmad Ismail is the real cancer, promising to visit UMNO branches nationwide to spread his cause.

I think perhaps Lim Guan Eng should go into hiding. Those 5 PKR reps away in Taiwan are probably the safest for the moment.

So how boneheaded was this latest move by the government? The most "loyal" component in the BN, the MCA, was swift in its condemnation.

From Malaysiakini:

Meanwhile in an immediate reaction, MCA Youth legal bureau Gan Ping Sieu also condemned the use of ISA against Tan.

"The journalist concerned should be called for questioning and not be arrested," he said.

He criticised the government for its double standards, adding that the arrest was a setback for democracy.

He added that the MCA Youth legal bureau was prepared to set up a team of lawyers to provide legal assistance to Tan.

Now, we know the Youth wings of a party are always more outspoken than the "Senior" wings, but what will the Ong brothers and Ong Tee Keat (deputy minister, and contender for the MCA president post) say now? Interestingly, a visit to Ong Tee Keat's website reveals that 90% of the visitors polled say MCA should leave BN (266 for; 30 against). My, my, my.

Can that really be far behind now? Gerakan's leaving. MCA better jump off the sinking ship as well.

There is no better evidence of how weak Badawi's government is when it resorts to the most iron-fisted, unjust tool that it has. I await the disintegration of the once-mighty Barisan Nasional.