NO ISA, BAD FOR LEFTISTS, ANTI-GOVERNMENT NGOs AND OPPOSITION POLITICIANS.

…IT IS HIGHLY IRONIC HOW THE ISA WAS THE REASON WHY THERE WERE SOME WHO HAD TRIED TO MISUSE IT TO CAPITALIZE ON IT PURELY TO ACHIEVE PERSONAL GLORY, AT BEING ARRESTED UNDER IT.

By Mansor Puteh

It is ironic how the Internal Security Act or ISA, the dreaded and repulsive and draconian Act which had given many Opposition politicians and leftist NGO leaders a lot of opportunities to trust themselves in the limelight is being repealed.

This is bad news to those who had been trying to use it to serve their selfish needs.

With no ISA, what is there for them to shout about?

The most vocal opposition, NGO leaders and other leftists of all shapes and sizes and political persuasions, will not have much recognition.

The ISA which had been in existence in Malaysia since 1960 had been used wrongly by them.

It was meant to stop anyone from pursuing any anti-national act. Unfortunately, the very same ISA had caused or created those who thought they could take advantage of it.

This caused them to attempt to make sure they were arrested under the ISA, so they could use it as a ‘badge of honor’ thus gaining some measure of notoriety nationally and internationally, hoping that they could also get the attention and sympathy of Amnesty International.

The effectiveness of the ISA could be felt during Operation Lallang, where the country and public could suddenly experience peace. The effect was that immediate.

Now that the ISA is being repealed, what other reason do these people have that they can use to trust themselves in the limelight?

None!

If there are those who still want to be in the limelight, they now have to be smarter than they were before.

If they have to speak and write, they have to make sure they do it intelligently, as doing in the traditional way could not give them the advantage that they could get before.

The law is being redesigned to sideline those with such intentions. It is being redesigned to trust those who are capable and intelligent, not those who are brash and silly.

It is therefore ironic how the ISA was the reason why those people had become unusually vicious and were unusually brave in spouting venom on anything.

Their real and hidden motive was only to ensure that they get the attention of the police who would recommend that they were given the special attention by being arrested under the ISA, the very law they abhor which they want to be arrested under.

They know how all those who had got this ‘badge of honor’ had continued to pursue pretty much the same causes.

It is quite obvious the ISA which was used against them had not dampened their spirit. On the contrary, it has given them more courage to pursue their actions.

So it was not strange to see how there were still some who wanted to make sure they were also given the ‘honor’ or being arrested under the ISA so they could be given the same ‘badge of honor’ to show to their own NGO and parties and public.

This is how proud they could be if they were arrested under the ISA.

But alas, the ISA is being repealed. So no one will be arrested under this law.

What this means is that those who were bent on being arrested under it will have no other excuse to be brutal; if they want to get into the limelight, they have to resort to using other methods.

They cannot use the ISA to serve their purpose as it I not there to help them anymore.

Yet, if they still insist on being harsh, rude and crude, they will have to satisfy themselves by being charged under less draconian laws, which can only drag them to the courts.

There is no glamour in this.

So getting rid of the ISA, is really bad for the leftists, anti-government and anti-social elements in the country.

They were better off if it is still around, so they can have something to hate the government for; so they can use the ISA for their own selfish ends.

Unfortunately, Singapore which also has the ISA, which said they would repeal it if Malaysia first did it now, says they intend to keep it since their own version of the ISA is different; they do not use it against political opponents.

Nobody knows how the average Singaporeans think of this, if they also support the PAP’s stand on this as it is not something that they would want to discuss openly in public or even in parliament.

We can only find out in the next general election.