Hindraf ISA detainees Freed but not FREE

Ganabatirau/ Kengadharan still “unfree” after ISA release
Although Hindraf leaders V.Ganabatirau and R.
Kengadharan have been released from Internal Security Act detention
after 15 months 23 days – 46 hours after the new PM’s announcement -
and have returned home to their families in Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya
respectively, they remain “unfree Malaysians” with the host of
draconian and undemocratic restrictions imposed on their ISA release.

Instead
of full and unconditional release from ISA, Ganabatirau and Kengadharan
remain unfree, exchanging incarceration within the four walls of the
Kamunting Detention Centre for an invisible incarceration without walls
but equally repressive and undemocratic in depriving them of their
fundamental rights as Malaysian citizens and the human rights
entrenched in the Malaysian Constitution.

The undemocratic and
draconian conditions for the release of the Hindraf duo denied them
human rights and fundamental liberties in substance, time and space,
depriving them of the citizenship rights to take part in political and
public activities, the human rights of freedoms of speech and
expression, as well as requiring them to report regularly to the police
as if they are big-time criminals.

Ganabatirau is not allowed to
leave Shah Alam and Kengadharan to leave Petaling Jaya, and must be
home by 7 pm every night, exchanging detention in Kamunting Detention
Centre to a larger geographical space of Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya
respectively – the mark of unfreedom and continued incarceration!

These
draconian and undemocratic restrictions on the Hindraf duo’s
citizenship and human rights make a mockery of the new Prime Minister,
Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s claim of greater respect for human rights and
democracy in his maiden speech to the nation last Friday. What crooked
interpretation of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now.”!

This
is totally unsatisfactory. I call on Najib to immediately remove all
draconian restrictions imposed on Ganabatirau and Kengadharan as well
as the following:

• Immediate and unconditional release of
all other ISA detainees, in particular remaining three Hindraf leaders
under the ISA, P. Uthayakumar, DAP Selangor State Assemblyman for Kota
Alam Shah, M. Manoharan and K. Vasantha Kumar; and

• The sacking of Syed Hamid Albar as Home Minister and the lifting of the ban on Hindraf imposed by Hamid last October.

LKS