Wives speak out against ISA
Anil Netto

Bubbly Vasanthi Ramalingam, seated on a stool in the new bakery she set up three months ago in Penang, a northern Malaysian city, was in defiant mood. "I was never interested in politics, but now I understand what my husband was struggling for," she says.

Her husband, N Gobalakrishnan, a youth leader in the opposition National Justice Party (Keadilan), was among 10 activists detained by the Malaysian government in April under the Internal Security Act (ISA), ostensibly to stop them from holding protests.

It has been more than 40 days since his arrest and Vasanthi, who bakes the pastries and cakes herself, has not yet been allowed to see her husband.

"On the day of his detention, he phoned me seven times from Pulau Langkawi," recalls Vasanthi. "During the last phone call, he told me, 'Take care of the children and carry on with what you are doing.' I knew they had got him then."

The use of the ISA, a colonial-era law which allows the arrest and detention of people without charges, is not new in Malaysia. But what makes Vasanthi and the wives of the other detainees stand out is their refusal to sit back and accept their fate in the hope their reticence will hasten their husbands' release.

Instead, some of the wives and families of those detained have launched stinging verbal broadsides against the ISA crackdown at public gatherings during a nationwide anti-ISA roadshow.

Angry exchanges

Apart from working at the bakery and looking after three children aged 8, 13 and 16, Vasanthi fills her evenings telling hushed crowds at such gatherings what it is like living in uncertainty, not knowing when her husband will be released.

"Once there was a group of policemen watching the gathering," she recounts. "When I got on stage, I thanked the policemen for being so concerned about our security."

"Then I added, 'I also hope you will understand the suffering and uncertainty a wife goes through when her husband is cruelly detained under the ISA.' They left the scene soon after that."

"Sometimes, I notice police personnel watching the bakery from outside, but I just carry on with my work," says Vasanthi, who fumes when she describes how she has been denied access to Gobalakrishnan since his arrest and her angry exchanges with frontline police staff.

Seven of the 10 detainees have already been visited by their families.

"Gobalakrishnan is very stubborn," she says with a glint of pride in her eyes. "He will not give in to them. He would rather die than give up what he believes."

‘Turn over’

The Keadilan party is an opposition party that grew after the arrest and detention of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, who is now serving a 15-year jail sentence for corruption and sodomy, charges that he says are politically motivated.

Under the ISA, authorities have the power to impose renewable two-year detention orders after the initial 60-day interrogation period or to release the detainees.

Critics and former detainees say the initial 60-day period is often used to 'turn over' detainees and secure a confession.

According to Vasanthi, a common theme among the spouses who have visited their detained loved ones is they were told not to file court proceedings seeking their husbands' release and to 'slow down' on speeches at political gatherings.

But that hasn't stopped Vasanthi and the other wives - such as Bahirah Tajul Aris, wife of Mohamad Ezam Mohammad Nor, Keadilan's youth head - from speaking out.

Despite legal setbacks, Bahirah has vowed not to give up the struggle to obtain her husband's freedom.

"How can the government claim that this is a democratic country when it must resort to the ISA to silence its opponents?" Bahirah wrote recently in a stinging article narrating her experience following Ezam's arrest.

"How can the police claim to be politically neutral when they allow themselves to be used as a political tool to safeguard certain individuals who want to cling onto power?"

No date fixed

At an open-air anti-ISA gathering in the northern city of Penang on May 19, one speaker observed: "They may have detained these youth leaders but little did they realise they would be unleashing the fury of women power against the ISA."

Indeed, what makes the present ISA protests different from the backlash following previous crackdowns is that women have played a key role in raising awareness of the need to repeal the law.

Meanwhile, the government-appointed Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), which is constitutionally empowered to visit places of detention, has been unable to visit the detainees so far.

The police have said they will be allowed to do so at an 'appropriate' time, sparking fresh criticism from rights groups about what would constitute an 'appropriate' time.

Under pressure from rights groups, 11 Suhakam commissioners met top police officials last Thursday in an attempt to gain access to the detainees.

But though police have said that the commissioners will eventually be allowed to see the detainees, no date has been fixed.

Sketch of PM

For each detainee's family, each day's delay can seem like an eternity. "My daughter, Tihani and my son, Hasif, have repeatedly asked me whether the police have beaten their father," said Bahirah.

Vasanthi's children have written letters to their father. One of them sketched a picture of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad shrugging his shoulders with the caption: 'I don't know anything about it.'

Vasanthi herself is not sure if her letters have been delivered.