No Way Through the ISA Jungle

No Way Through the ISA Jungle

They shut the road to freedom

Through the law of the jungle

Fifty years ago

With the Internal Security Act.

And now you would never know

There was once a road to freedom

Through the political jungle

Before they planted the special branch

Under the police and the home ministry.

Only the keen observer sees

That, where the anti-ISA protesters stood,

Against the FRU men with batons charging,

And the acid rain from the water canon,

There was once a road to freedom through the political jungle.

Yet, if you enter the political jungle

From an opposition gate,

Be ready for the night-air spent in the stench of lock-up stools,

All for speaking out against injustice.

Yet the courageous dare to don black in protest,

Fearing neither the police,

Beatings nor arrests.

You will hear the crackling of Najib's whip,

Beneath the swish of his wife's skirt in the Mongolian slew,

Striking down the opponents swiftly

With the draconian ISA Act,

As they blatantly abuse

The old ISA road through the political jungle.

Knowing that there is no road to freedom through the ISA jungle.

It is time NOW

And we MUST

Cut down the ISA jungle!

*N/B: Written on the fiftieth anniversary of the Internal Security Act, implemented for use against the Malayan communists during the insurgency, but is abused by the BN led government as a tool against political opponents and dissidents

Copyright Reserved