ISA, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RECENT PAST – Part 2

By Dr Syed Husin Ali

1. Merdeka (Independence)

Malaysia (then Malaya) gained independence from the British in 1957. At the beginning, led mainly by the MNP (Malayan Nationalist Party) and CPM (Communist Party of Malaya), the struggle was for total independence, free from colonial vestiges in the political, economic, social and other spheres.
Theirs followed a tradition that manifested itself in antagonistic means of struggle against the British colonialists.

In 1948, following guerilla attacks in rubber plantations by members of the CPM, the British declared a state of Emergency. Both parties and a number of smaller others were declared illegal, and thousands of their leaders and members were arrested and detained for years without trial. Some members of
the MNP later joined and cooperated with CPM members who had gone into the jungle (or underground).

A political vacuum was thus created. The British encouraged some Malay bureaucrats serving under colonial administration to form UMNO, which the British supported. With colonial encouragement too the MCA, led largely by businessmen, was formed. Together with the MIC, which had existed earlier
under the leadership of Indian professionals, they formed the Alliance.

The Alliance followed the tradition of struggle that was non-antagonistic, in fact collaborating with the British in the fight against the communists. It was willing to negotiate for political independence that allowed for continued dominant British role in the economic and military spheres especially. It was to the Alliance that the British rulers handed over independence (Merdeka).

Tunku Abdul Rahman, the UMNO leader who led the Alliance campaign for Merdeka, promised not only to release the detained nationalists, but also to abrogate the emergency regulation and replace it with another law. But three years after Merdeka, the Tunku introduced the ISA, which contains all the
draconian powers of the Emergency, particularly arbitrary detention without trial.

Contrary to his promise, he retained and never abrogated the emergency regulation. The ISA exists until now, in fact, made worse with several obnoxious amendments, like mandatory death sentence for possession of arms and denial of habeas corpus. As for the emergency regulation, it is still very much with us. In fact, at present there are four emergency declarations that exist simultaneously with the ISA.

2. Malaysia and Indonesian Confrontation

At the beginning of the sixties, Tunku broached the idea of forming Malaysia, consisting of Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and Brunei. The opposition parties in Malaya then, especially the Socialist Front (SF) and the PAS opposed this project. They considered it as a neo-colonial project of Britain and the US, to turn Malaysia into a "huge floating battleship" that could point its guns at Indonesia, then under the strongly anti-imperialist President Sukarno, and Vietnam, whose southern half was waging a liberation struggle against US imperialism.

In 1963 Malaysia was formed and subsequently Sukarno declared Konfrontasi against it. Several Malayan opposition leaders were accused of collaborating with Indonesia and planning to establish an exile government. These allegations, though not fully proven, were used to legitimise the arrests of
hundreds of leaders and members of SF, PAS and some other smaller parties, and their subsequent detentions under the ISA, for long periods without trial.

Meanwhile, as has been exposed now with revealing documentary proofs, the British and US governments, through their diplomatic and intelligence operatives under the CIA particularly, helped Sukarno's opponents, especially those in the army, to overthrow the president. This they succeeded in doing after a massive massacre of about a million people suspected or accused of being communists.

Meanwhile, in Singapore Premier Lee Kuan Yew waged the "battle for merger". After detaining more than a hundred leaders and cadres of the opposition, particularly from the Barisan Sosialis (BS), he forced a referendum that gave the people no choice but to support Singapore's entry into Malaysia.
Ironically, about a couple of years later, the Tunku, who was personally dissatisfied with Lee's repeated antics to oppose the Malaysian government and cause inter-ethnic conflicts, booted Singapore out of Malaysia.

It is interesting to note that in Vietnam the communists and the liberation forces finally triumphed over the US. But in Indonesia, as we know, General Suharto became president, and his military regime was strongly backed by the US for more than 30 years. Together with Sukarno's overthrow, a number of
radical political parties associated with or supporting him were closed down. In Singapore, the progressive or leftist political and labour movements were crippled, after their political parties were practically outlawed and their leaders incarcerated in jail for long years.

The same happened in Malaysia. The emergency declaration together with the ISA were brutally and effectively used to ban or curtail opposition political parties and detain hundreds of their leaders or members. The demise or weakening of progressive multiethnic political parties, such as the SF, which was made up of the Labour Party (LPM) and the People's Party (PRM), opened the way for narrow ethnic and religious politics to rear their ugly heads in Malaysia.

ISA, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RECENT PAST – Part 1

ISA, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RECENT PAST – Part 3

ISA, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RECENT PAST – Part 4

ISA, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RECENT PAST – Part 5