Friday 16 September 2011

Najib Razak's Moment by Raja Petra Kamarudin

So why are we blaming Britain (a country that in the first place never colonised Malaya) for a law that we introduced three years AFTER the British went home and three years AFTER Malaya gained self-rule or Merdeka (from a country that never colonised us)?

NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin

Najib Razak's Moment

Selamat Hari Malaysia! Today, 16.9.2011, will go down in history as Najib Razak's day. Nobody expected Malaysia's 6th Prime Minister to have the gumption to scrap the I.S.A. But last night, in a widely-followed Merdeka/Malaysia Day address, he scrapped it. Just like that, and in Bahasa Malaysia, he ended one of colonial Britain's most despised gifts to this nation. The move stunned the usually vociferous political rivals into silence, says the MOLE.* Until way past midnight, the blogs of Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang had yet to laud the move.

And laud it we Malaysians must.

Thank you Mr Prime Minister, and thank you to those who have fought to end this colonial legacy.

Merdeka and Selamat Hari Malaysia.

http://www.rockybru.com.my/2011/09/najib-razaks-moment.html
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Hold on a minute! Am I missing something here? The above was what Rocky’s Bru posted two hours ago.

However, two things do not seem to make sense here.

First of all, Malaysia was never colonised by Britain. So say ‘notable’ Malaysian historians. So how can, as Rocky’s Bru said, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak have “ended one of colonial Britain's most despised gifts to this nation”?

If Malaysia was never colonised by Britain, then surely the ISA can’t be "one of colonial Britain’s most despised gifts to this nation".

Nevertheless, I am extremely glad that Rocky’s Bru agrees that the ISA is a ‘most despised’ law, as what we in the opposition have been saying for so long, and as I have been saying for 35 years since the 1970s when I first became politically active in the era when many of you were still sucking on your mother’s tits.

Secondly, even if Malaya was colonised by Britain, as Rocky’s Bru now seems to admit, we declared Merdeka in August 1957 when the Union Jack was lowered and the new Malayan flag was raised and when we stopped singing ‘God Save the Queen’ and replaced it with the song 'Terang Bulan', which was stolen from a Hawaiian song called ‘Mamula Moon’ and which we renamed ‘Negara Ku’.

The Internal Security Act 1960, however, as the Act itself suggests, was made into law in 1960, three years AFTER Merdeka. That’s why it is called the Internal Security Act 1960 and not the Internal Security Act 1948 (when the Emergency was first declared and when Britain was still running the country).

So why are we blaming Britain (a country that in the first place never colonised Malaya) for a law that we introduced three years AFTER the British went home and three years AFTER Malaya gained self-rule or Merdeka (from a country that never colonised us)?

That’s the part that seems to escape me.

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