Bariah Ishak, Marina Lee and The Rest of The Heroes

Meqna, my three years old daughter, gently push her small finger against my ribs, trying to wake me up. As I open my eyes, she asked me in her baby slang, “abah kena tangkap?”

This is the first time she saw me since we were separated on the evening of September 17, 2008.

Earlier, during sahur, Al, my eldest claimed he has been bullied at school because of my detention while Wef relates how he cried when he saw me on TV, being handcuffed and escorted by the police.

Meanwhile, both Al and Wef told Guli, “Abah kena tangkap pasal bunuh banyak sangat polis dalam GTA”, referring to Guli’s favourite PS2 game, the Grand Theft Auto.

While I cherished the luxury of being with my kids and hear their reflections on the matter, my heart is with my brother Raja Petra Kamaruddin.

Pete is now in Kamunting Detention Centre in Perak. The Minister of Home Affairs had signed the detention order of two years. What will happen if Najib Razak became the Prime Minister during the two years? Do we believe Rosmah The Terrible will not interfere and force the next Home Minister to extend the detention order till the end of her hubby premiership? This is the bad thing about such law we called ISA.

While I still stand my ground on such preventive law but as always, I keep on questioning the manner such law allows for so much of abuse.

Will Pete be there when his youngest, Sarah met her Mr. Right? Doesn’t Pete has a right as a father to be there with his daughter during her growing years? For years, Pete has been there for us without failed to amuse us with his insights. Perhaps time has come for us to be there physically for Pete. This time around no Paypal or US Dollar can free our Pete but perhaps our intelligences and strengths.

Should we just go there and take Pete and other sixty plus detainees out of the detention centre? Why not. If we have the number we can do that. We just need 0.001% of the population to make the plan a success. In a worst-case scenario, maybe 0.001% of those who will march to Kamunting to release Pete and friends will be dead. Yet, surely Pete and friends will be free and due to the number of those martyr, the government will crumbled and UMNO and BN will be kick out of Malaysia forever.

Then why are we not doing it? The answer is because we are Malaysian.

Our forefather and he is The Tunku’s and his buddies, not Rashid Maidin, Ching Peng, Shamsiah Fakeh, Ahmad Boestaman etc, has taught us that we fight and got our independent via a friendly manner and that is by each and everyone of them toasting the champagne glass while flirting with the bourgeoisie.

Friendly manner? Isn’t it a case of lembu punya susu sapi dapat nama? Isn’t those archived documents and the transcript of debates in the British Parliament already proved that British were forced to expedite Malaya’s independence because of the armed struggle by the Communist Party of Malaya and the tendency of the Malay leftist to support the so called Chinese Terrorist. And when our Government put its signature on the Hatyai Agreement with the CPM, we agreed to acknowledge their roles in getting the independence for Malaya.

So truly Malaysian we are, we will rather relax and enjoyed our forthcoming holiday sipping Earl Grey in the balcony of the resort and yes, we will have no problem seeing our once beloved fella rotten in the Kamunting Detention Centre. Well, he is not the first, right?

I have said before, and I shall repeat it again, we have become a society who enjoys masturbating ourselves more than venturing into the real sex. Thanks to UMNO and its friends, we rather fantasise with all the symbols. We are easily aroused by the biggest and the longest, we rather save billions of Ringgit to sent one Malaysian to tour the space than spending two or three billions on petrol subsidies that can surely help the poor to buy things cheaper.

Our fantasies will bring us to bed with anybody, but it can never conceived.

I wish to congratulate the Special Branch for only taking about ten days to wrap their investigation on my brother Pete. By sending Pete to Kamunting will make a whole lot of different to him. Pete is now living in a community consisting of Political Detainees and those deemed as the threat to the Nation. He has his own bed, reading material, access to other detainees, proper medical care, access to sports and etc. Kamunting must be the heaven if we compare it with those days when he is held under investigation at an undisclosed location in a solitary confinement. The torturing part has end, now is the rehabilitating period for our man.

But why should Pete be rehabilitate? Is our Pete a threat to the nation? Ask ourselves this question, when we were told that he is a threat because he has been inciting unrest by insulting Islam, is this another meal for masturbating or this is the real one?

How many people who actually qualified to talk about Islam has felt insulted by what Pete has written. How many Mufti has crucified Pete for what he has written? How many Imams have been butchered by his jamaah after they read what Pete has written? How many Muslim girls have liberate their virginity by indulging into free sex due to what being written by Pete?

I do not know about you, but personally I haven’t seen any glaring differences in the Muslim community since Pete published the so-called inciting unrest by insulting Islam article.

But yes, Pete is a threat to UMNO. Pete is a threat to Najib. Pete is a threat to Pak Lah. But no, Pete is not the threat to the nation.

Pete is not a threat to us. Period.

My father once told me, British made a grave mistake by putting Gandhi behind bar. They have created a hero out of the small man. When my eldest sister rushes to hug me at Jalan Duta magistrate court, she tells me, ‘If only Abah is here! If only Abah is here Azidi! He will be proud of you’.

I was left confused. I am not the hero. They are the heroes. You all are the heroes. Because my strength lies in yours.

All the way through my journey to the Kota Bharu Magistrate court to be remanded for the first time, I stared at the handcuff and pray to God that my wife will remain strong. I knew if she starts to cry, I shall too.

As I walked out of the car, I saw her in a distance smiling at me. That is why you have my photos smiling all over the papers next day. She is the hero.

A person like Pete is not the hero if we do not give him our full support. If we want to make him our hero, it will have to begin with us.

Marina Lee Abdullah has been a constant hero for Pete. But this is an un-chartered territory for our sole hero. Pete has been investigated under ISA before but never being sent to Kamunting. This time around we will need more than one hero to save our Pete.

So, can we stand to be a hero?