The good doctor’s wife – all fire and ice

R Mohana Rani is powering ahead to secure the release of her husband and five others detained under the EO.

EXCLUSIVE

The text message that R Mohana Rani received on the night of June 24 read like a tired storyline. Police had intercepted and detained a busload of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) activists travelling from Sungai Petani to Penang.

On board were her husband and Sungai Siput MP, Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, and their 18-year-old son, Raveen Veerasenan. But Rani – as she prefers to be called – barely raised an eyebrow.

For the co-founder and deputy secretary-general of PSM, years of enduring the customary police harassment that accompanies activism had whittled down her fears and trained her to wait out these storms that would predictably pass within a day.

“I was running a three-day leadership programme in Kuala Lumpur at the time which I didn’t bother cancelling,” Rani, 56, recounted. “I’m quite used to police arrests by now so I wasn’t worried. I even slept soundly that night!”

But when she awoke at 4am the familiar plot had taken on an ominous twist. A new text message from Jeyakumar’s personal assistant read that police had discovered communist-related material in the bus.
The group would be remanded for seven days under charges of waging war against the King. It was then that Rani felt the first flicker of concern.

“It had become something else all together,” she said. “It was the charge that shook us. No doubt it was outlandish but when the government uses a charge like that you know that they are up to something.”
Rani cancelled the programme and made arrangements to return to Ipoh. But she had one last duty to fulfil before making her way to her family.

The detainees had been heading to Penang to promote PSM’s “Udahlah tu… Bersaralah BN” (Enough already – retire now BN) campaign over the weekend. The show had to go on.

“Things shouldn’t come to standstill just because of the arrests,” Rani said. “So we attended the Sungai Siput programme where we addressed a very good turnout.”

Yet none of the PSM speakers on that day could ignore the invisible cloud of anxiety that hovered overhead. Rani’s thoughts turned constantly to her only child.
When the seven-day remand period ended on July 2, PSM members assembled at all the holding stations and Rani stationed herself at the Butterworth Sessions Court.

Spirits lifted as Raveen, another teenager and a 55-year-old woman were soon released. But then the bombshell dropped.

The 21 detainees had their remand period extended for another three days and the remaining six, including Jeyakumar, were re-arrested under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) 1969.

“We were very disappointed at the extension of the remand period,” Rani said. “But it was the EO that came as a huge shock.”

Since the arrests Rani has been granted access to her husband three times for 15 minutes at a time.
The past two weeks have been hard on her but the steely calmness of her voice betrays no sign of it.
As an activist she is more comfortable paying attention to others than drawing it to herself, and this was evident in her startled pause when asked how she was holding up.

“I’m all right,” she assured. “It’s a hectic time but I’m not the only one going through it. Many people are working around the clock to pressure the government into securing their release.”

She paused again, then admitted: “It’s been a difficult time. And not just emotionally. Each member of a family has a certain role and when one member isn’t around another has to step up. But I’ve had tremendous support from family and friends so I’m OK.”

Of anger, frustration and hope

Now a hint of frustration crept into her voice as she described the entire incident as “senseless” and “a waste of time” that could be spent on tackling more worthy issues.

“We’ve had to work harder than usual every single day since the government and police have put up a wall where information is concerned,” she said. “They have kept us completely in the dark. And the police have treated us very badly.”

“This whole thing is something laughable that unfortunately can’t be laughed off. And what infuriates me is how the government is using its might to subdue the people while saying that the people’s voice matters.”
But Rani, a former secondary school English teacher, isn’t fuelled by anger and frustration alone. She also has a firm grip on hope.

A hope that never led her to question the worthiness of her chosen path. And a hope that further intensified when the Bersih 2.0 rally took place against all odds.

“There is a great public resistance today,” she noted. “If you look back at all the Internal Security Act (ISA) arrests, you’ll see that the climate of fear was greater then than it is now. People are now prepared to confront and challenge the government.”

“What makes it worthwhile at the end of the day is that people are seeing the system for what it is and the people in power for who they are. Their true colours are being revealed and everyone can see the faces behind the masks.”

The veteran activist

Rani is a fusion of fire and ice. The same voice that ignites with passion when speaking of injustices can just as easily slip into cool detachment when touching on personal emotions. The latter is attributed to her being an activism veteran.

“If I had never been exposed to such situations before I would probably be having a different experience now,” she stated. “But we’ve been in the game long enough to know that the government can use draconian laws against the people.”

“We’re under no illusions and that makes us tougher. We’re not sitting in a corner mourning or moping. Neither are the six. Their spirits are very strong although Kumar is still physically weak.”

Rani confessed, however, to fearing for her husband’s life when he was admitted to the National Heart Institute (IJN) for heart palpitations.

“The heart is not a very hardy organ and you never know how serious a heart ailment is,” she said. “But I also fear for the other five because they’re being submitted to the mental torture of having to answer the same questions over and over again.”

“There is nothing more that the police can extract from them. We’ve done everything in the open. The police are holding them for political reasons; it has nothing to do with national security.”

Communism and the younger generation

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nazri Aziz, however, would disagree. Two days ago, he insisted that the EO was necessary because communism was still alive in the country as proven by PSM. Rani vehemently shot down this reasoning.

“For a political detainee there can be no crime worse than waging war against the King,” she pointed out. “Yet the six were released unconditionally after the remand period. A re-arrest should therefore be for a lesser crime and it certainly shouldn’t warrant the EO.”

Rani also pointed out that the police had no choice but to use communism as a scapegoat and rebutted Nazri’s remark that the communist ideology would infilterate the younger generation.

“The younger generation doesn’t even share the same sentiment about May 13,” she said. “It has no significance to them like it has to the generation that lived through it.”

“Similarly with the communist ideology. And PSM is not a communist party. We have always looked up to those who have sacrificed for the nation regardless of their ideology.”

‘Kumar is a good man’

The six, who are now hailed as the EO6 or PSM6, will have their habeas corpus applications heard tomorrow. In the meantime, nightly candlelight vigils have been held for them and over 500 police reports have been lodged against their detention.

Even the medical profession made a rare public stand, with the Federation of Private Medical Practitioner’s Association calling for Jeyakumar’s immediate release.

“I respect the doctors who are openly supporting him,” Rani acknowledged. “Kumar has been a good doctor and has a stellar reputation. I’m glad that doctors in private practices are willing to defend one of their own and not be cowed by pressure from the government.”

The online media has also been peppered by letters from Jeyakumar’s friends and colleagues who have unabashedly praised him as a “sincere”, “humble”, “courageous” and “principled” man.

Rani, on the other hand, responds with a startled pause when asked to describe her husband. Then she quietly said, “He is a good person. All of what is written about him is true.”