Häromveckan grep polisen i Malaysia en stor mängd människor som protesterade på gatorna. Man protesterade mot regeringens politik och mot vallagarna som man anser är specialanpassade för att garantera att samma gruppering som haft makten sen 1957 ska förbli vid makten. De allra flest gripna släpptes snart av polisen. Men inte alla, sex medlemmar i partiet PSM sitter fortfarande fängslade:
A week after Malaysian authorities failed to stop people taking to the streets of the capital Kuala Lumpur on July 9 to demand free and fair elections, six activists from the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) remained in detention without trial. The detainees include federal member of parliament Dr Jeyakumar Deveraj, who has been hailed by a prominent local writer as “the Malaysian saint of the poor”.
PSM secretary general S. Arutchelvan told Green Left Weekly that he agreed with the civil society organisers of the July 9 Bersih 2.0 (“bersih” means clean in Malay) that the number of people who defied incredible police repression to come out in the streets that day was about 50,000. Police reportedly detained up to 1600 people and repeatedly fired teargas into peaceful groups of people.
“I estimate 50,000, but thousands more were denied entry to KL that day. Al Jazeera reported that 100,000 turned out, the BBC reported 120,000. But the government-controlled local media said it was only 10-20,000. The police said there were only 5-6000.
“But if there had been no massive crackdown, mass arrests, buses denied permits, lock down of Kuala Lumpur, then the numbers of people who took to the streets would have easily gone beyond 100,000.”
Most of the democracy supporters detained on July 9 have since been freed, but the six PSM detainees remain in solitary confinement in several police stations around the country. They are locked up in tiny and 2 metres-by-2.5 metre cells, where they are forced to sleep on the floor with the lights on and face repeated and aggressive hours-long interrogations.
De sex arresterades dock redan den 25 juni tillsammans med 24 andra och inte i samband med de stora demonstrationerna men på grund av att de ansågs ha samband med arrangörerna av demonstrationerna. De övriga 24 av den ursprungliga gruppen på 30 har vad jag förstår släppts och endast sex är fortfarande fängslade under undermåliga förhållanden. Kräv att de friges genom att skriva på en petition.
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Läs mer: Danielle Sabai, Links, Int. Viewpoint,
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