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Open Letter to Razak

This letter is written in accordance with a resolution passed at the 1975 New Zealand Overseas Students Congress where Malaysian students expressed their distress and anger over the unjust arrests and detention without trial of Juliet Chen, Hamzah Kassim and many other of our countrymen who helped the poor in demanding social justice and economic equality.

We join them and thousands of our countrymen in protesting against the vicious repression of your government, designed to suppress the rising demands of our people for justice. Like hundreds of brothers and sisters incacerated in many detention camps in Malaysia, we also protest against the collaboration of the government with foreign interests in exploiting the resources of our country; the poverty and hunger of our people, the increasing problems of landlessness, unemployment and inflation, low wages and bad working conditions of workers, corruption in the government, and unjust laws which deprive us our democratic rights.

I refer you to your statement of November 16, 1974, reported by the New Sunday Times (Malaysia) of November 17, 1974 on its front page.

You said (among other things), 'The Communists' main objective is to bring down the government by force, and to wipe out democracy. If they succeed there will be a totalitarian government that will take away the freedom of the people.'

Yet when you made this statement did you realise that you were contradicting yourself? You talk about 'democracy' and your government strives to present to the world a 'democratic' image. But, at the same time, you deprive Malaysian citizens of their democratic rights. You talk about a "totalitarian government' that will take away the freedom of the people' but your government has been developing a form of totalitarianism which has repeatedly taken away the freedom of our people over the last 15 years.

When we assert our legitimate right to protest against these injustices. when we call the attention of the nation and the world to the conditions of the poor and underprivileged we are treated as criminals, branded as 'anti-nationals' and 'subversives', 'communists', accused of carrying out a 'hate Malaysia campaign'. Section 149 (1)b of the Constitution prevents us from even effectively questioning government policies and actions as this is freely interpreted as 'exciting disaffection' against the King and the government whether inside or outside Malaysia. We are subjected to the indignity of arrest and detention without trial under the Internal Security Act when we. with cause, challenge the government.

Because of our views, many of us now live in fear of your government which makes many of us fugitives from our motherland, many whose freedom is endangered are in hiding from your police and many are already imprisoned without trial for demanding social justice and economic equality.

Is this the 'democracy' you are attempting to safeguard or is it the 'totalitarian government' you oppose?

Part II of the Constitution promises 'Fundamental Liberties'. S8(1) says that 'all persons are equal before the law'. This spirit is immediately contravened by S8(2) by making an exception that discrimination is 'expressly authorised by the Constitution'...

Since Merdeka these 'Fundamental Liberties' have been defiled and taken away by many repressive laws, for example: the Internal Security Act, anti-trade union laws, the identity card system and S. 149 of the Sacred Constitution (which extends the jur-jurisdiction of Malaysian laws overseas) blatantly declares 'any provisions of that law designed to stop or prevent that action is valid not withstanding that it is inconsistent with any of the provisions of Articles 5, 9, or 10 or would apart from this Article be outside the legislative power of Parliament'. So the government is empowered in this manner to act outside the Rule of Law.

Further, your government has in no uncertain terms removed all semblance of University autonomy and academic freedom by virtue of the obnoxious University and University Amendment Act 1975 which expressly prohibits the students from taking part in the activities of all lawful organisations. These draconian measures mean that Universities have no freedoms to determine the composition of both the administrative body and student body. This is done by appointment by the government.

You said before and after the last election and in the report referred to above that your government was improving the 'lot of the people'. Do you mean the Mot' of the poor or rich? Is a gambling den built with government assistance in the Genting Highlands; the encouragement of foreign exploiters; the rewarding of the rich with grandiose titles, an improvement?

In recent months thousands of Malaysians in desperation have dared to openly protest about their poverty and miserable living [unclear: aonditions] the problem of landlessness and unemployment, hunger and malnutrition and even death as a result of hunger. Yet your Minister of Education was so lacking in conscience to declare: 'To say that we will die from starvation is to be ungrateful to God...' He further said that the government cannot tax the rich too much in order to continue helping the poor: 'If we do so, the rich will not try to make more money ... On the other hand the poor cannot depend too much on the government for help. The Government must be moderate and fair to all'.

Indeed, the government has no monopoly of the right to govern. In deciding the welfare of the people, only the people themselves can decide what they want. But the government has decided that it is the only body capable of making such decisions without need to consult the people.

When, in their thousands they demanded social justice and economic equality, the government reacted with violence and inhumanity. Riot troops were sent to destroy houses built by squatters in Tasek Utara and in other parts of Malaysia. Squatting is an 'illegal act'. It is therefore a justification for the government to evict the poor leaving them homeless and at the mercies of our tropical climate. They were not even compensated for the houses built by many on their life-savings.

Riot troops brutalised the poor and student supporters with tear gas and batons when they protested about their misfortunes in Northern Malaysia between November and December 1974. Many students like Juliet Chin and Hamzah Kassim are now in jail just because of their concern and support for the poor. Yet many of them are from poor homes and who can represent their families' plight better than they? Yet the government and its servile press denounced them as 'trouble-makers', 'hooligans', 'Communists', 'subversives' and 'anti-nationals' as if to fight for the underprivileged is a crime.

Who are the real 'anti-nationals', they or the people who help foreigners to exploit the workers of our country.

We, the patriotic citizens of Malaysia demand that Juliet Chin, Hamzah Kassim and all political prisoners be released unconditionally. We demand that your government correct the existing social injustices and economic inequalities by ending all foreign control of our economy; carry out drastic land reforms so as to distribute land to the landless as promised in your Malaysia Plan; distribute the wealth of the rich through a more equitable system; restore our democratic rights by repealing all repugnant and repressive laws.

Unless and until your government is prepared to do this, it is futile to placate us with sweet talk of helping the poor. The government must rethink its whole approach or else abdicate in favour of citizens who are sincerely and genuinely concerned with bringing real progress to the country. Until you are prepared to listen to the just demands of the people, you have no right to rule. There are many who will carry on making these demands and sacrifice their freedom and lives to achieve them, as many have already done. History speaks for us.