arrested for wearing a badge

i can’t believe it!! simply outrageous!

A short prayer ceremony to mark the Internal Security Act (ISA) detention of five Hindraf leaders two years ago was marred by the arrest of one of the movement’s key leaders S Jayathas.

His alleged crime – wearing an anti-ISA button badge.

a man was arrested for simply wearing the anti-ISA  badge! is it a crime to wear such badge? why, i wear anti-ISA badge everyday when i’m out! my friends whom i hang around with and my colleagues will attest to this strongly. everyday they see me, they would see an anti-ISA badge on me.

when i was in KL, i wear one too and last weekend when i was in johor, i also wore it. a friend once said i’m very loyal (to the anti-ISA cause) when another friend commented on why wear the badge. indeed. i seem to be the

loyal one among our so called PAIN (penang anti-isa network) members. so long after all the anti-ISA vigil, when we do meet, everytime we meet, i see none of them wearing the badge – i’l be the only one wearing it.  i notice even those from GMI (gabungan mansuhkan isa – coalition for the aboliton of isa) don’t wear the badge.  these people who are strong supporters of ISA seems to wear the badge only during anti-isa vigil. everyday in their working life in the office or out of the office, they don’t wear it.

i first started to wear the anti-isa badge (as first picture) even long time before the anti-ISA  vigils were ‘hot’ being held out here and there. think it was 3 or 4 years ago, that my then colleague, susan, brought a lot of the anti-isa badge back to the office… from dr jeyakumar (sg siput MP). i remember she was telling us that dr jeya said something like this “once you  started to wear the badge, then you must wear it everyday” – so i’m just being obedient to dr jeya! haha.

at first i wore the red anti-ISA adge everyday but then later on i moved on to wearing the black ‘malaysia bebas dari ISA’ badge (black as 2nd picture) as it is smaller than the red one. well i’m used to wearing it already that it had sort of become a habit that i have to wear it (like my accessory of ear-ring!) each time i leave the house.

ok back to the arrest. why was s jayathas arrested? maybe he was just unlucky as the police wanted to pick on somebody to show their big boss (at putrajaya) they are working. oh well, it was said that  the police had marked jayathas because he was a key figure in the newly formed human rights party, the newly formed political arm of hindraf.  jayathas is the party’s information chief. so ok that was why they picked on him… but for what reason, what grounds for the arrest? the police simply use the anti-ISA badge as the ground for arresting him! wasn‘t that silly? oh but… reminds me somebody once said the police are stupid. they wanted to do their job to please their masters but they do it in a wrong (stupid) way.  (remember once people were being arrested for wearing black?).

well the news was that jayathas had been released but he was asked to report back on 28 dec. so you think the police will charged him on 28 dec? for wearing a badge that expresses his sentiments? well, go ahead let the police charged him, then let the world laugh at our malaysian police!!

as for me, i’ll continue to wear my anti-ISA badge as  i like (btw, i also have an anti-ISA sticker on my bike).

NOTE:  see report, pictures and videos on jayathas own website.