It is indeed a great shock to Malaysians everywhere to learn of the death sentence passed on the 14 yr old boy for possessing arms. The Malaysian Government has intensified its resolve to be more fascist by this inhuman act than ever.

The important question now is not the fact of the boy (and two others both aged 15 arrested on July 20 in Taiping alleged with control over 147 rounds of live ammunition) in possession of firearms but why he did so. This must surely be reflected in the policies of the Government for practising and perpetrating every king of injustice in the country from exploitation of the poor to downright racial discrimination to mention a few. Widespread dissatisfaction against government policies is so serious as to force even juveniles to take up arms to right whatever injustice that they feel has been imposed upon them through no falut of their own, be it real or imaginery.

The government has responded to this in a negative and fascist way by sentencing the boy to death. It chooses to be inhuman by disregarding all the ethics of a civilised society. Far from lowering dissatisfaction, it has encouraged it. By doing so, it has directly or indirectly acted as a recruiting agent for the Communist Party of Malaya.

Every effort must be made to pressurize the government to give the boy a royal pardon. MSA and MSS A have taken the right step by issuing a joint statement deploring the action. We hope NZUSA and other organizations will do the same.