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Malaysia: Jailed Leader Calls For Massive Protests
KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 (IslamOnline) - One of the 10 reformasi (reform) leaders jailed 45 days ago under the infamous Internal Security Act (ISA), on Wednesday, called for more massive protests in Malaysia.
Tian Chua, the Vice President of the National Justice Party (NJP), or Keadilan party of Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, made the call during a planned visit by his father and brother in Kuala Lumpur.
Police finally allowed the parents of Tian Chua to visit him after one and a half months in jail. His father said the jailed politician was apparently in good form but had lost weight.
Chua called for massive support from the people in fighting the ISA. His brief message also said that a demonstration scheduled for June 9th "to mark the end of the 60 days of my detention must be attended by every concerned citizen to show their opposition to the ISA."
"If the gathering is not big enough, the government will be let off the hook. We cannot do anything from the inside, but the people can do everything from outside", Tian Chua, in the message relayed to the Malaysian people through his family, said.
Observers in Kuala Lumpur said Chua showed signs of resistance to police interrogations with a message he sent to supporters of opposition parties.
Most of the jailed leaders who have met with their families have either called for a slow down in protests, or simply said things were fine with them while in custody.
Another leader and Islamic scholar, Badrul Amin Baharom, has also called for resistance to the ISA to continue. He told family members who visited him that the battle should go on, and there should not be any let up, IslamOnline was told.
Families of the jailed leaders had campaigned for weeks before being allowed to visit their incarcerated relatives. They had raised fears that the jailed opposition leaders would be harmed while in detention.
Opposition leaders warned the government not to attempt to turn jailed leaders away from the cause of the opposition. They said those previously arrested under the much-dreaded ISA have easily turned pro-government after years of detention and abuse in camps.
They also said the ISA was irrelevant in the new century. The government, however, retorts that opposition leaders were arrested after police found evidence of their involvement in "possible subversive actions" against the regime.
Courts in Malaysia have been turned into a battlefield where lawyers of the detained are attempting to free their clients.
They have so far been met with little success, even though one High Court judge ruled that the police had to produce two of the detained in court. This ruling, however, was overturned in Federal Court in Kuala Lumpur last week.
Since April 10th, police have arrested 10 Keadilan members and reformasi activists under the ISA, which allows for detention without trial.
Seven of the detainees have so far been allowed family visits. The other three will soon be given the same privilege, sources said.
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