Day: October 27, 2017

Spirit of ISA still alive in Malaysia, says DAP MP

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: FMT News

PETALING JAYA: Thirty years after Operasi Lalang, the spirit of the Internal Security Act (ISA) is still alive in the country through the passing and enforcement of preventive laws, Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto said today.

She said despite Prime Minister Najib Razak’s move to abolish the ISA, many laws had been amended and introduced under his administration which restricted freedoms enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

She also slammed Najib’s recent comments that certain quarters were creating false impressions that Malaysia was in danger of sliding into a dictatorship.

“The prime minister lacks enlightenment as legislations that are dictatorial in nature are a reflection of a dictatorial government led by dictatorial leadership. Nothing more and nothing less,” she said in a statement commemorating the 30th anniversary of Operasi Lalang. Read more →

Tian Chua released from jail

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: FMT News

Pic from FMT News

KAJANG: Batu MP Tian Chua was released from jail today after serving a month in the Kajang prison.

Tian Chua said he was awoken by the wardens at 5am and let out of prison by 7am.

Speaking to a crowd of about 150 who were awaiting his release, he said he was happy to be out after a month of “resting”.

“They probably saw the crowd here and rushed to                                                                                               let me out,” he added. Read more →

The day the Malaysian press was muzzled

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: The Malaysian Insight

The Star’s front page on October 28, 1987, the second day of Ops Lalang. – The Malaysian Insight pic

ON October 28, 1987, on the second day of Operasi Lalang, three media organisations – The Star, Sin Chew Chit Poh and Watan – were muzzled.

Tunku Abdul Rahman, then chairman of The Star, said the country was “on the road to dictatorship”.

The mass arrest of politicians and activists the previous day was not unexpected, but when the newspapers, one of them Watan, minuscule in its circulation, were shut down, everyone was shocked.

“Nobody had the slightest idea,” said K. Nada, managing editor of The Star at the time, when recalling the day he received a letter stating that the paper was shut down. Read more →

How passion against injustice led a Catholic brother to Kamunting

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: The Malaysian Insight

 

Anthony Rogers is now brother director at St Xavier’s Institution in George Town, Penang. He read the Bible cover to cover during his eight months in Kamunting in the late 1980s. – The Malaysian Insight pic

October 27 marks the 30th anniversary of  Operasi Lalang, where 106 people were detained without trial and the publishing licences of three newspapers were revoked. The episode remains a grim reminder of what can happen in the absence of check and balances, a deep scar in the Malaysian psyche. To mark this day, The Malaysian Insight speaks to those involved in the dragnet – the victims and their families, detention centre wardens and police.

WHAT does not break you, only makes you stronger.

He was not a prominent politician. He was not a champion of vernacular education. He did not make a living driving the wedge between Malaysians with fire-and-brimstone speeches yet this La Salle Brother was among the 106 individuals detained under Operasi Lalang.

What were Brother Anthony Rogers’ offences? Developing social programmes, providing aid to the poor and raising awareness on social and economic injustices.

The passage of time does not make his detention for being a threat to national security any less ridiculous but Rogers ‎is not a bitter nor defeated man.

He said that his detention gave him the opportunity to strike friendships with people of different faith. He also found solace in the Bible, which he read from cover to cover many times.  Read more →