The Malaysian Internal Security Act (ISA) is there for a reason. I strongly urge the powers to be or the would be powers to be, NOT to abolish the ISA.

I am saying this specifically to the oppositions parties. All of what these guys had achieves were thanks to the Malaysian Internal Security Act (ISA).

If there were no ISA, if the ruling government had never bothered to throw people, most of them are oppositions party members, into ISA detaining centers, do you think the rest of the Malaysian people (the rakyat) would have heard all their voices? No.

The whole ISA issue had created heros that most of the rakyat today look up too. After hearing so-and-so was detained under the Internal Security Act, only then the rakyat starts to listen to what they are saying.

ISA has now become a benchmark, a status symbol for politicians of the oppositions party members to be successful in what they do. The more times you were detained under the ISA, the more people starts to listen to you. The more time you spend time in ISA detaining centers, the more street cred you receives.

The oppositions parties had make use of the ISA so well throughout the years to achieve what they had achieved till this day.

It comes as no surprise that when they, the oppositions parties, Pakatan Rakyat (the People’s Pact) come to power, they would want to abolish the ISA. It’s a good move for them to stay in power.

People in Malaysia will only take a politician seriously when his actions and words gets him thrown into the ISA jail. When one keep doing what he or she do and keep saying what he or she says even when there is a high risk of being detained under the ISA act, then he or she is on to something.

When there is no ISA there will be no chance for other political parties to go against them. Nobody will hear their cries of protest because since there are not Internal Security Act, no action will be taken against them. There will be no more heros. This is the goal of an anti-ISA activist.

As you can see here, I am strongly against the idea of abolishing the ISA.

ISA has also become a benchmark for becoming a successful blogger. I and most people I know had never thought of Raja Petra as a blogger, and yet with the recent case against him that resulted in him being detained under the ISA, he is now known throughout the mass media as a blogger and thus Malaysia Today had become the blog to read.

Although technically Malaysia Today is not a blog. It is more of a online publication as oppose to a ‘web log‘. Then again nobody bothers to listen to me, as I am not an ISA alumni.

I would imagine that if I were one day to be detained under the ISA act for say a day or two, that would drive a crazy amount of traffic to my website, Jiboneus.com.

But the question here is, which would drive a more insane amount of traffic to your site, being detained under the ISA act or having your blog post in the front page of Digg.com?

The opposition had use ISA to its advantage.