It seems that everyone is coughing and everybody is having some sort of illness these few weeks. It has been humid in Kuching, and I am thankful I overspent on installing a new air condition unit at my new place. Sleeping seems to be much more delightful nowadays. Thank God!!!
Although I am not disturbed by the riots in KL last weekend, but my conscious mind did think on why is there a need to have such things happening in the country. Maybe the RM200 mil loss as reported by the government is exaggerated, but the point is, stuff like that should not happen in the ‘Boleh-land‘.
The opposition parties, inclusive of NGO’s and the common people should realize that by not having a permit for such gathering, and still pursuing to go on with the gathering is an act of defiance, hence the need for action from the authorities. If the authorities do not enforce the law, then maybe we should let everyone do anything they want…and see what the end result is. I am very sure you guys can jumble up a simple conclusion to what would happen.
If there is anything proven from last Saturday’s riot, it would be how defiant those gathering are towards the law. I wonder what would happen if these people would come in power. Would they allow such defiance and also street protest?
The government on the other hand, has not encouraged such gathering to occur. Maybe they saw these type of gatherings as a good way for certain quarters to misuse the ‘rakyat‘ for their very own political mileage. If they didn’t see it that way, I most certainly did. I felt the gathering didn’t reach its point because it only caused more pain than gain.
Indeed, ISA is a century old law which needs to be reformed, but it is a huge fact that we still need it around, especially to avoid racial disunity and terrorism. Without the ISA, the Jemaah Islamiah would have attacked Malaysia at will. Without it, racial issues would crop up everywhere, and without it, the government will not be able to focus on development as they would be busy trying to hold together our nation which has over 80 different ethnic groups.
Regardless of political beliefs, I still think that shall the opposition be in power, they will still introduce a laws similar to hinder unwanted incidents, such as the al-Ma’unah’s plan to over throw the government. The only thing is that, they would re-name it, and probably amend it so that it will be more relaxed.
From my point of view, the ISA has been misused as people related to certain parties whom actually incite racial issues remain un-detained, while others whom practically did nothing much ended up being locked-up for no solid reason. Nevertheless, I prefer the ISA to be properly defined, with specific guidelines on whom can and can’t be detained regardless of race, political background and religion.
More importantly, ISA should be only used on those whom are really considered a threat to the country and national security. It should not be used to lock up whomever goes against the government, but I agree that those whom make seditious and racial statements should be arrested under the ISA.
So, do we need ISA? My answer is YES. Call it what you like, but the fact is, most countries acknowledge that there is a need to control freedom to keep the world at peace.
NOTE: Photos in this post have been deleted due to technical issues with the server in the past.