• Raja Petra Kamaruddin arrested under ISA

I have always held on to my believe that UMNO can’t do shit to Raja Petra Kamaruddin but I have been overly optimistic.

Barely a day after MCMC unblocked Malaysia Today, Raja Petra’s mouthpiece website, ten policemen arrested him under ISA without trial in his house at 1.10pm, according to his wife Marina Lee Abdullah.

For many weeks now, Raja Petra has been embroiled in a tussle with the law bent on charging him for comments allegedly insulting Islam and Prophet Muhammad in one of his articles. And I suppose even the man himself expected he’d end up in ISA shortly.

Raja Petra’s ISA arrest paints a perfect picture of UMNO favouritism at work. Ahmad Ismail was suspended for 3 years, merely a slap on the wrist for outright racial provocation. This again proves that UMNO has two sets of law, one for their members and a more sinister one involving ISA for the opposition and the rest of us general public.

Now ISA as we know is utterly draconian and despicable. Detainees are jailed without any trial. Without an opportunity to defend themselves in court. If UMNO insists on keeping Raja Petra there for good, he could be there forever. There are no laws in ISA, only UMNO’s whims and fancies. Absolute disregard to basic human rights to a fair trial by law.

By arresting Raja Petra, UMNO is also indirectly giving the royals an ‘up yours’ finger. Public unrests following Raja Petra’s arrest is inevitable but I wish more powerful forces will intervene to help Raja Petra out of ISA. It will be interesting to see how events will unfold. Is this a repeat of Ops Lalang to crackdown hard on opposition voices? Is this the start of sinister schemes up UMNO’s sleeve to provoke public unrests, riots, demonstration for excuses to declare a state of emergency?

One thing for sure: UMNO must fall.