COMMENTS | Friends and family members of the LTTE 12 have been contacting me asking me what can be done for their loved ones. Everyone of them understands that this is a political issue, not a criminal one. They understand that they have been targeted by the state – deep or otherwise – and the LTTE 12 are collateral damage. Most of them believe they are on their own.

The arrival of Zakir Naik on our shores, a religious extremist who not only disparages other religions in his sermons but asks the Malay community to vote for corrupt Muslim leaders over honest non-Muslim leaders, galvanised the deep Islamic state and emboldened nativist narratives made more complicated by the political fracturing of the Malay community.

The acolytes of Zakir, led by the Perlis mufti, must be extremely happy. Their handiworks are all over these persecutions. Nobody can dispute that the LTTE was a non-issue before Penang Deputy Chief Minister (II) P Ramasamy was targeted by the Perlis mufti for being the most vocal critic of Zakir (below).

Some family members after the torture allegations made against the police were worried about the safety of these political prisoners. Again, I did not have anything to say that would ease their fears. Keep in mind that it was state actors that were identified as the masterminds behind the abduction of Pastor Raymond Koh, hence any words of mine would be meaningless.

The chief of police has lied about the whereabouts of Indira Gandhi’s daughter and at this moment the Malay power structures are in the fight of their lives for the stewardship of this country. Non-Malay political operatives are merely handmaids to the people in power and they are certainly acting like it.

The police have not offered one shred of evidence which justifies this level of concern for a security threat beyond opening up themselves to accusations of torture and malfeasance. In October last year,  Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin claimed that there was a possibility that “keganasan atau kemungkinan berlaku keganasan daripada gerakan kumpulan LTTE di negara ini.”

Now if this is true, why hasn’t the state security apparatus made it clear that they prevented an imminent threat. After all, they have done this many times when it comes to “Islamic” terrorism.  What the state security apparatus is doing is enabling narratives that demonise a political party (the DAP) and at the same time, offers a distraction of the real Islamic extremists' threat that this region faces.

A Malay political operative in the federal government told me right now it would be difficult for Malay politicians to stick out their necks for the LTTE 12. “The Malays won't understand why we lock up 'Islamic terrorists' but give a free pass to 'Indian terrorists'," he said. He also said some people are worried that the DAP has too much influence and this way, it makes it seem as though that the DAP is not all-powerful and Malays are still in control.

We live in a country where the state is implicated in an abduction of a religious personality and nobody seems to care. The chief of police lies about the whereabouts of a kidnapped child and nobody seems to care. Does anyone really care if 12 Indians get persecuted by the state on trumped-up political charges? I do not think so. Would a signature campaign help? I don’t know, but it would give the families moral support in a period where they are facing the immorality of the state. It would send a clear message that at least there are Malaysians who know this for the sham that it is.

Even the case of Teoh Beng Hock is not solved to any standard befitting a democracy. All that we have are the politicians and the state security apparatus reminding us to trust them. Reminding us not to spread false news. Reminding us that they are doing everything in their power to keep us safe, all the while engaging in racial and religious politics - which the LTTE 12 are unfortunately a byproduct of.

It does seem strange, right? Some Malays were worried that an “Indian” AG would not be able to defend the special rights of Malays and the sanctity of Islam. If the state does not condone religious extremism, the religion in question would not need to be defended. If the state does not condone and make provocative racist or bigoted overtures, the rights of a specific race would not need to be defended. If the state does not manipulate religion for political gain, then there would not be any need for religious arguments to intrude into the civil discourse.

The persecution of the LTTE 12, therefore, should demonstrate that it does not matter if there are non-Malays in the federal government. It does not matter if the AG is a non-Malay. All that matters is that state actors were successful in engineering a plot that targeted the DAP because Indian political operatives had the audacity to speak out against Zakir.

The police have told us that they have submitted their investigation papers regarding Zakir to the AG and are awaiting word form the department. Meanwhile, the LTTE 12 are treated as dangerous terrorists and denied bail using laws which the Harapan government promised to repeal. In other words, Zakir, whom the state has banned from social media and public speaking, gets to walk around while the LTTE 12 rot in jail cells.