Strike with fury, plan with cunning and calm!

The People’s Parliament
We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers - Emmeline Pankhurst

Strike with fury, plan with cunning and calm!
September 23, 2008


That’s what RPK knocked into my head at a planning meeting in February this year.

We had met to plan the dissemination of certain documents when some information came in on another matter and I blew a fuse.

For a good five minutes, I was raving and ranting.

‘That’s it. Meeting over’, Pete declared.

I protested. We could not delay the planning.

Pete was adamant.

‘You’re useless to me in your present state. Have that fury when we strike. I need you calm and cunning now’.

That meeting was scheduled to another day.

That lesson was lost on me today.

Before I say anything else, let me first say ‘Sorry’ to all of you for the anger in my last three posts.

The ‘Have we misrepresented ourselves’ post was written in the early hours of this morning under a terrible sense of foreboding of what was to happen in court later in the morning, and a sense of frustration at the numbers who had indorsed the petition to free the ISA detainees. It also didn’t help that both Zorro and I, having received information that we were both being sought, had given our word to Marina that we would not be at the court, who had communicated to us Pete’s request to us when she last saw him : ‘Stay out. You’re useless to me inside’.

The night before, discussions with the lawyers involved in Pete’s application touched on the possibility that the authorities would do a dirty and issue a minister’s section 8 order and have Pete sent to Kamunting, in the hope of frustrating the application.

The ‘RPK to Kamunting for 2 years’ and the ‘Power with the people. join me’ were written just after word had reached me that the authorities had done the dirty on Pete.

I cannot remember being so angry as I was this morning.

Again, I want to apologise to all of you for my harshness in these two posts.

In my anger I also forgot another important lesson I’ve learnt over the years : some will give more, others cannot give as much. Be grateful for all the help.

So many of you have responded to my three posts today, with your various suggestions on what we might do to help Pete, and how, if we do decide to, we might carry the Hartal ISA forward.

I am going to re-read all of them tonight and try to draw the best from all of them and then do some planning with cunning and calm.

These are trying times for all of us. Please be patient with me.

Posted by Haris Ibrahim
Filed in People Power

28 Responses to “Strike with fury, plan with cunning and calm!”
Menyalak-er Says:
September 23, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Yes, bro, be as shrewed and cunning, if not more so, than the ‘enemy’. Patience, endurance and preseverence. Lead us by wisdom and acountability and the ‘gates of hell’ will not prevail against us, the rakyat.
Peace and mercy be with RPK, for even in his incarceration, he is here with us in spirit - lawan tetap lawan!
Take care. Best regards.

alberttan Says:
September 23, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Dear Haris;
Time to harness the power of the internet globally, UNLEASH the chain mail I sent to you, millions of emails will flood PM, UN, Amnesty International within the space of a week. I can assure you that Pete will be released once the emails hit, and international bodies pressure the bo-otak yemeni.

seamaster... Says:
September 23, 2008 at 11:45 pm
cunning is the perfect action of consideration now as we all know, they do watever they want due to desperation. there is where illogical behaviour arise. luckily for us, we r wise and much more developed than them. dun worry RPK, take good care. we will continue to fight watever deem necessary. its either they ISA-ed all of us or lets see who lives longer…..To hell with them, the stupiau BARBARIANS…..

walski69 Says:
September 23, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Bro, no apologies necessary - I share your outrage. I am, however, at a loss as to how to make sure this damn sham of a government gets the boot ASAP.

At the same time, part of this anger and frustration is also directed at PR. Are they, or are they not? Do they have the numbers, or do they not? Hopeful as I am, at the same time I’m flustered and quite tired of the show-boating.

Be that as it may, now is the time to regroup and think our collective response through. It needs to be effective, above everything else.

In the meantime, I’m compiling my rogues gallery of Malaysia’s Most Hated…

elinalee Says:
September 23, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Haris,

I have been checking yr blog the whole day and I think quite a few of us are very worried about you. It really pains me to read this. Being so close to RPK we can understand yr anger and frustraton. I was also feeling so depressed and helpless the whole day. I went thro all the suggestions in the comments but I keep questioning whether they will have enough impact. We need a concerted effort from Pakatan and the supporting NGO’s to reach out to the masses for any of the initiatives suggested. I am not sure whether they are working with you and Zorro? The sience from DSAI is deafening today. The takeover initiative can wait, but can RPK?

We are waiting for your call to action. Please do email if you need any other help.

Alvin 5 Says:
September 23, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Yes indeed
you can’t be of help if you are inside with Pete.

I have learn early in life to always maitain a cool head.
we all have these tendencies to get emotional as human.

Have a good rest and tomorrow you will always have a better grasp, fresher thoughts into the matter at hand, most often than not, you will be a lot wiser in your decisions then.

It’s not a time to be hasty although we are all fully aware that Pete is shouldering all this in his detention.

i remembered you have caution all to stay calm and do not over react and fall into the trap of Syed.

i wish you clarity in your decisions which is vital at this juncture.

Please take care and have some rest

Farida Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:01 am
Haris,

I think I speak for many when I say ‘No apologies needed.’ We know where you are coming from.

Let’s all say a collective prayer at a certain time every day, wherever we are, for justice to prevail, for the righteous to be preserved and for the wicked to go away.

It will happen. The walls of injustice will come tumbling down and Kamunting will be just a memory but also a continual reminder to future generations that never again must the rakyat sleep.

Take care, brother, you and Zorro and all others on that inglorious list. Know we love you.

alberttan Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:04 am
Dear Haris;
Give me an email address I can send the chain email to, the email sample in your previous post “Power is with the People, Will you join me and use it?” is still waiting your moderation. As this point, the email chain is already going global through my own email list. You will hear Amnesty International announce something by end of this week, I am sure.

alberttan,

Please send it to thepeoplesparliament@gmail.com

Veena Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:13 am
You have every right to say what you said in your last posts. You have every right to be angry. Your continuous and ongoing passion and resilience is admirable.

But take care of yourself, we need you and we are with you Truly with you.

Helen Ang Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:27 am
CLOSE KAMUNTING

Earlier tonight (Sept 23), Lim Guan Eng mooted a proposal at the ‘Abolish ISA’ forum. He suggested that the Perak government acquire the land on which Kamunting is sited. This move will force the closure of the ISA detention camp.

Guan Eng proposed this as one of a two-point Roadmap to Abolish ISA. The other measure is for a Pakatan MP to table a private member’s bill in Parliament to repeal the Act.

He said this will be a test to see if the Barisan MPs practice what they preach. Some leaders of BN component parties have finally spoken up against the ISA, the same law of all these years past – on which they kept silent – and one that earned the acronym ‘Ikut Suka Aku-I Simply Arrest’. The BN Parliamentarians should support this bill if they walk their talk.

Guan Eng has the idea of a ‘Taman Bahagia Kamunting’. He said there is a section of the land acquisition act with a provision enabling the Perak government to buy the Kamunting land. Other Pakatan state governments can chip in to foot the bill. He pledged that Penang would contribute, and the public, if we cared enough, could donate money for this project.

In the spirit of Makkal Sakthi, Kamunting will be torn down for a low-cost housing project instead.

The federal government can of course always relocate the ISA camp elsewhere. “They can build it in whichever state wants it,” Guan Eng remarked.

Another speaker Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad, a former ISA detainee, said it was part of the psychology for the jailers to drum it into camp inmates that “You are the one who put yourself here (in Kamunting)”.

Teresa Kok recalling her arrest said it was like a kidnapping scene. Two police vehicles stopped her car, one in front and one behind. They would not let her make a phone call to tell anyone that she was being taken in.

Imagine how frightening it is that your government (which some, or many of you reading this) did not elect, can disappear you quietly into the night like that.

Teresa also took to task Utusan for its coverage of her, and plans to sue the paper. Sungkai state assemblyman A. Sivanesan, who is in the Perak exco, said that his government will follow in Selangor’s footsteps and boycott Utusan.

Guan Eng said “We don’t want to spend RM1.20, RM2 to buy newspapers that lie. Give free also we don’t want.”

The wife of Hindraf Five’s Ganapathi Rao (who is parent to two children – aged one and three) was persuaded to speak a few words at the forum. She recalled that in April this year, her husband was sick and warded at Taiping Hospital. She observed that when she visited, there were some 10 policemen guarding him in the room. She said her husband was a responsible lawyer, not a terrorist. He was sick, yet handcuffed.

Raja Petra Kamarudin’s wife Marina could hardly hold back her tears when she addressed the audience which jam-packed the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Marina received a standing ovation as she stepped on stage to tell the crowd that she’d let RPK know how strongly Malaysians supported him. She said “we will continue fighting and fighting until we bring down this government. Don’t forget we all have a part to play.”

storm62 Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:39 am
Syed Hamid, if you REALLY love this Country, PLEASE resign. You Failed again. What a DISGRACE to Malaysia.

You FAILED as Foriegn Minister.
You FAILED as Home Minister.
Please DON’T FAIL to leave us.

“NOT ALL IN JAIL ARE CROOKS”
“NOT ALL CROOKS ARE IN JAIL”

MALAYSIA BOLEH. SYED HAMID TAK BOLEH.

Ann Teoh Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:41 am
Dear Haris,

Have courage, and do not belittle the power or prayer. The Almighty is greater than any government. You must believe in that. Many more trials will come. From where will you derive your strength and courage when your own abilities fail you? God is the one that leads us to fight against injustice. So God is with us. There is nothing to fear. He will give us the cunning and show us the way. Even if we fall,a nd fail, we continue…

I know as I sit here typing, RPK is detained in an cold, bare cell. Yet, I still believe that we need to pray for strength, for him.

We act and pray at the same time. One without the other is useless. Sometimes we pray for than we act, sometimes we act more than we pray. But always prayer.

If action is only what makes a man useful, then there is little dignity is being human. That is why even the sick, the bed-ridden, are still fully human. If nothing else, they can pray. At least, this is what I believe.

Be brave, dear Haris. Let’s us continue the struggle. And no need to apologise. You have done so much more than three quarters of the Malaysian population.

Muhammad Firdaus Christopher Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:43 am
Dear brother,

Please, please for heavens sake, you do not have to apologize to all of us as we too shared the same outrage to what had transpired the last 24 hrs. I appeal for your calm and coolness in leading us all through this challenge, period of darkness (Hopefully, only short term as Pete earlier mentioned ~ 2 weeks stay in Kamunting b4 PR takes over). Keep us informed of the next course of action and quite honestly, I’ve already started to be on HARTAL mode together with my comrades in Penang, Ipoh.

Nevertheless, I need to also echo the feedback from my contacts from around the globe that the whole takeover of administration scenario has started to take it’s toll on all and have started to voice their dismay through persistent calls throughout the day on PRs next move, strategy in the hope for Pete’s release from the clutches of Hamid Albar/ ISA as soonest possible.

In the meantime, have a dip in the bathtub, enjoy a cigar/ rest and be rejuvenated in the hope of leading us with this initiative.

God Bless You,

Christopher

alberttan Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:44 am
Dear Haris;
Done, check the email out, the To: addresses are PM, Malaysian Govt portal, UN bodies and Amnesty International Canada. As the email circulates, the To: addresses are maintained, ie as each netizen forward the email to family, friends and colleagues (especially overseas) in the cc: or bcc: boxes, a copy goes to PM, portal, UN bodies and Amnesty International. How fast? I think a week will generate a million emails to those bodies globally. Power of chain emails on the net, properly directed.

James Loh Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:44 am
Would Hartal work? Currently, I’m not sure if folks will stop going to work or close their shop. I think we need to involve politician from both sides to seek Pete’s release as a unify voice. I’m certain we don’t have problem with Pakatan Rakyat seeking Pete’s release. We need the royal family and BN politician to voice their frustration on Pete’s situation. We need more than just Zaid from BN. Is it possible to ask Razaleigh, Mahathir, Selangor/Perak Sultan etc to request for Pete’s release?

james loh Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:49 am
am indeed share the agony of seeing pete living in kamunting..the 1st n last tim ei heard was at dataran prima with my friends.
i wasnt convinced that the p rakyat could break thru the two third..wasnt easy task , but made possible on many people.pete is one of them
if ever needed , we would be there in anyway cover the shortfall of his absence

Muhammad Firdaus Christopher Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:49 am
Dear brother Haris,

Can you forward the mail from alberttan to my e-mail address ?

Thanks & let me do some magic around the globe as well

Cheers, Christopher

Done

Truth Shall Prevail Says:
September 24, 2008 at 12:50 am
Dato Seri Haris,

I had bad vibes that something was wrong. Now that you have clarified I am relieved. Get things going alright. Mail me should you need help… Thank you once again

alberttan Says:
September 24, 2008 at 1:01 am
Dear Haris;
The more Malaysians start their own chains, the faster the Free YM RPK email will spread. I suggest forwarding to all bloggers and commentators, up to them to see whether they will maintain the chain. My chain already started and expected to build up internationally within the next 3 days. If 3 or more chains start tonite, the PM, UN and Amnesty International will have tons of emails by Fri, instead of next week. Power of exponentiation; 5×5x5×5x5×5x5×5x5 will result in almost 2 million emails. 3 more chains tonite will reduce the days required by 3, simple maths. Fascism is a concern the world over.

tkapple Says:
September 24, 2008 at 1:32 am
Dear HARIS,
for HARTAL to b successful,we need resounding participation,so we must spread the message far n wide,reaching out to all we can.Next ,we must make it simple n easy to participate,hence 1 day n simply stay at home.There r more than a million civil servants whose brains could not tell the difference Govt n BN,it may b good idea to hijack their support(or rather not letting them sabotageit) by having HARTAL on Sat/Sun/public hol. One day is easier for people to give,n if all effort concentrate on this ONE day,impact will b huge(lest some may suggest giving support on either day1 or day2,hence diluting the impact)Example: “There will b a 1 day general strike to outlaw the ISA tomorrow DATE , TIME.Please give your full support by staying at HOME,for a BETTER MALAYSIA.Selamat berHARTAL!” RPK is right,ALL our Rakyat’s leaders MUST avoid arrest at ALL costs.BEST OF LUCK !!!

mala Says:
September 24, 2008 at 1:49 am
Haris,
For sure the civil staff will get a memo - not allowing them to participate in the hartal. how do we counter this?

mala,

giving this some thought

clearwater Says:
September 24, 2008 at 1:57 am
Yes, Haris, don’t get mad, get even. We understand your anger and frustration at the authorities for their ill intentions; at blog readers for not giving enough; at yourself for being so helpless when RPK is jailed in Kamunting without a chance to defend himself. It is the measure of a man that he can recognize his momentary lapse and apologize for it. I too apologize for not being able to do enough to further the cause and to keep RPK free, as do many other readers I am sure. We are only able to do our little bit, having family responsibilities, but we do want to contribute in whatever humble way we can. Please do tell.

gobloking Says:
September 24, 2008 at 2:05 am
No need to apologise for your justified anger

We are all raving mad too at this terrible miscarriage of injustice (what a bloody sad excuse for the word “justice”!)We share your pain.

I too am greatly sorry I can only talk3talk4 (canto phrase for all bluster & no show) but I will continue to pray like a monk possessed from where I am for all in Kamunting & for our brothers & sisters fighting for a Fair & Just Malaysia

Let’s Spread the word while they continue to spread their BS

ONWARDS BLOGGERS! THANKS HARIS !!!!

Richard Loh Says:
September 24, 2008 at 2:20 am
Haris,

Remember me, the one who told you that “I am a happy man if I were to die today” at the Nov 10 Bersih rally.

I had gone through all the comments on your blog regarding the Hartal ISA and it seems that there are way too many differences of opinion.

With the many diversification and broad spectra of the present in comparison to the fifties, the Hartal proposal may not work.

A suggestion which I read may be considered, i.e to squeeze all the businesses that are run by umno/bn and their relatives by boycotting them. Banks, petronas, fast food outlets, the newspapers and many others.

This way we can continue for days, weeks and even months if they do not concede and repeal the ISA. Of course there must be someone who have the time and energy to find out all their business and may need expenses which we do not mind to contribute.

We can start in small groups in all states and we play our part by informing others within our locations.

Regarding the email chain can someone forward it to me so I can start on my side as well.

Haris,
My wish before I leave this world is that this country must change for the better and run by competent leaders. Hope that we will be more successful than the Bersih rally.

Richard,

E-mail chain sent

romerz Says:
September 24, 2008 at 2:32 am
A tale of 2 botaks.

http://romerz.blogspot.com/2008/09/tale-of-2-botaks.html

Muhammad Firdaus Christopher Says:
September 24, 2008 at 3:11 am
Thanks Haris & storm62, received the e-mail and have started to disseminate around the globe as well.

Cheers & have a good rest.

Regards, Christopher

Muhammad Firdaus Christopher Says:
September 24, 2008 at 3:51 am
In addition, Ive send out to my comrades in UK, US, China, NZ, Australia, Canada apart from Malaysia to continue to pile the pressure with requests that the e-mail is send out to various international bodies and prominent individuals/ agencies for support.

Lets continue to show our solidarity and support for RPK. We all owe him/ the family this much… Please support us !

God Bless, Christopher

shar101 Says:
September 24, 2008 at 3:57 am
Hahaha! Calm and cunning, eh bro.

Get sinister too coz it works.

As Helen mentioned above, I’ve got my idea in the pipeline with PR i.e. Kick KDC out of Perak. Just hearing LGE announcing it to the crowd gave me goosebumps. Ok lah, original idea was yours but I wrote the script, bro.

Oh well, back to the drawing board for another plan.

Btw Helen and Galadriel are working on a story (as suggested by Reniv) tentatively titled “I am RPK” and we can perhaps use it to outreach internationally, apart from the e-mail chain-mail idea mentioned thus far.

*Puts on thinking cap to conjure another joke on BN*