London joins Malaysia in Protest Against 50 years of Internal Security Act Oppression

From London, we send a message to all our fellow Malaysian citizens that the world is watching and we will continue to  stand up and speak out with you. Enough is enough. Fifty years of fear and oppression under the Internal Security Act MUST come to an end. And we will not fall silent till those in the corridors of power take heed and listen.
By Rian James
Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA UK held a peaceful but emotionally charged demonstration outside the Malaysian tourism office in Trafalgar Square today. About 40 supporters gathered here in London between 12-2pm GMT to show solidarity with hundreds across Malaysia who tried to hold candle-light vigils across the country simultaneously, marking the 50th anniversary since the enactment of the Internal Security Act.
Despite a host of promises made by the Malaysian government to enable it to be re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council in June this year, and the recent recommendations of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that the ISA should be repealed, peaceful anti-ISA protesters were forcefully arrested by Malaysian police in Petaling Jaya and Penang today. Arrests were made on Anti-ISA movement president Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, PKR supreme council member Badrul Hisham Saharin and Parti Sosialis Malaysia secretary-general S Arutchelvan as well as 22 others who were amongst hundreds who bravely attended candlelight vigils throughout Malaysia to have their voices counted against the ISA.
Conversely the gathering in Trafalgar Square, the fourth of its kind this year, went without a hitch as full cooperation was provided by Westminster Police, permitting Malaysians abroad the right to peaceful protest as set out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. 
‘Shame on you Malaysian Government’, ‘Shame on you Najib’, ‘Down with the ISA’, ’Malaysia-stop abusing human rights’ and ‘Yes to tourism, no to torture’ were among the chants heard by hundreds of British citizens and tourists visiting the capital today as the 2 hour long protest gained momentum. 
The chanting paused briefly to give way to some artistic expression which began with a poem penned and read by George Wielgus, a British artist and poet, who took to the megaphone to recite ‘Please Don’t Arrest Me Under the ISA’, parts of which read:

This is a poem

About the poem

I cannot read out

The words I cannot say

The things I cannot think, or feel

The person I cannot be

Even though this poem is not about Malaysia
Tell the hakim

Tell the jury

Tel my lawyers

Tell the people when I disappear

When I am detained

When I am revoked

When witnesses testify I sodomized them

Or drugs are found in my house

Or a bullet in my head

That it should not be so

Because this is not a poem about Malaysia

Jay Sharma then recited a poem written by Cecil Rajendra entitled ‘The Animal and Insect Act’, a satirical jab at the Malaysian government in wanting to exact absolute security over the state by passing various laws and prohibitions that resulted in the northward and southward migration of the jungle’s inhabitants- resulting finally in an eerie silence and emptiness, a state of total security.
The crowd gathering to listen to the ISA inspired poetry also watched a short skit put on by Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA members which symbolically depicted the oppression the Malaysian government has systematically inflicted upon the press, journalists, bloggers, protesters, playwrights, civil rights activist and opposition politicians over the last 50 years in its desperate attempts to curtail freedom of expression, thought and movement. The skit culminated in a reminder of the sort of fear and abuse that can often be perpetrated by the use of the ISA as ‘special branch officers’ made a swoop on a ‘detainee’ played by Hiu Woong-Sin, who was clad in an ISA detainee uniform, prisoner number, handcuffs and a black eye- reminiscent of the abuse suffered by Anwar Ibrahim following his arrest under the ISA in 1998. As he was thrown to the ground, a stunned audience fell silent as the narrator concluded with a call for all Malaysian citizens to stand together in solidarity against the ISA:

Today we are here to remember those who have been detained under the ISA.

Each detainee has a story to tell.

Each was someone’s brother, sister, mother, father, husband, or wife.

We’ve seen the devastating effects of 50 years of ISA oppression and tyranny.

Malaysia, we unite with you in our struggle for justice and freedom to ensure that our children do not suffer 50 more years under the ISA. 


A final poem entitled the ‘A-Z of Censor(shit)’ by Nurul Mooza was uncanny in its observations :

This is Democracy under duress Democracy drugged via 

Enforcement and entrapment, no ethos here just egos
*click clack* they say, do you prefer family or Freedom? 
The Cheek says this is no Guantanamo Bay, what a Shabery sham
This is a hegemonic state, just ask the Home Security inmates; 
Behave yourself or you’ll be gone and never come back
Into the Internal Security Act, better make sure you're on track

Justice is jailed in the judge’s chambers. 
Judiciary system seems too jolly to scream
CORRECT CORRECT CORRECT
The kings won’t bail you in Kamunting, 
You’re on your own: screw you, check mate.
That’s what you get for Learning the truth. 
Don’t question our leaders, just deal with it

Maybe you should ‘change your mode’, modify your mouth
Make sure it doesn’t go off, cause if money matters more 
Then mind your lips and as you were Monday to Friday
Kneel and serve before the state, but not the Nation
Oppressive operation: that’s the modus

The demonstration ended with a one minute silence amidst lit candles as a mark of respect and remembrance for all ISA detainees, past and present, and their families and friends whose lives have been irrevocably affected by the ISA.

From London, we send a message to all our fellow Malaysian citizens that the world is watching and we will continue to  stand up and speak out with you. Enough is enough. Fifty years of fear and oppression under the Internal Security Act MUST come to an end. And we will not fall silent till those in the corridors of power take heed and listen.