It is most ironical and ludicrous that Utusan Malaysia has joined the chorus clamouring for a restoration of draconian laws like infamous Internal Security Act when it is the most guilty of being most utterly insensitive on race and religious issues like its baseless allegation about a non-existent DAP conspiracy to create a Christian Malaysia and the lies that the DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers.

The call for the restoration of the ISA was started by none other than the former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who said that such a detention-without-trial law would be most useful to control the actions of the “extremist minority” which he said has undermined the country’s stability.

Mahathir said the group was immature and willing to make statements that touched on the sensitivities of other races as well as disrupted harmony in the country.

But the former Prime Minister has been most biased and selective in his public pronouncement like the infamous catalogue of selective prosecution and persecutions during his 22-year premiership and his infamous selective amnesia on major events during the decades he was Prime Minister after he stepped down from the highest office in the land.

Extremism and insensitivity of race and religion must be deplored, regardless of coming from whatever quarter.

But the former Prime Minister had never checked or reined in the extremists in Utusan, leaders of UMNO and Perkasa, of which he is adviser, when they were guilty of the most insensitive, provocative, incendiary and seditious statements, speeches and actions heedless of Malaysia’s plural society and stability.

Mahathir’s call for the restoration of ISA was immediately welcomed with open arms by the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar who declared “I wish so. I welcome it very much”, who asked:
“The Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) is enough, but what’s wrong with also having the ISA?”

Today, Utusan has piled on the pressure for the restoration of ISA, warning “certain quarters not to touch on sensitive issues concerning Malay rights and Islam or else the ISA will be reintroduced”.

In all these flurry, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is conspicuously absent. In fact, he does not seem to exist or to figure in any important decision-making in the country.

These are ominous developments as there appears to be a convergence of reactionary and undemocratic forces to create a “hothouse” atmosphere to justify the restoration of draconian laws like the ISA.

In this scenario, the Prime Minister seems to be totally irrelevant and his promise to make Malaysia “the best democracy in the world” utterly academic and inconsequential.

Is there a convergence of reactionary and undemocratic forces, led by the former Prime Minister and enlisting the support of the Police and the UMNO media, for a “putsch” in Putrajaya – even if not yet to nominate their own Prime Minister but to dictate the policies that must be adopted by the Umno/BN government, like the restoration of ISA.

What is the stand of Najib on these reactionary and undemocratic developments like the undemocratic and indefensible ban on Comango, which has even attracted the condemnation of the United Nations, and which is calling for the revival of the ISA detention-without trial law and abandonment of Najib’s “Malaysia as the best democracy in the world” pledge?