Free Nat Tan, free this bridge builder

Nathaniel Tan, social activist and blogger, was detained Friday by a hide-and-seek Malaysian police. The following day, he was secretively hauled to the Magistrate Court and is now serving a four-day remand to "assist" police investigations on internet-related affairs. The Official Secrets Act has been bandied about.

This entire episode smacks of deceit, discrimination and despotism.

We are governed by fools. The price is proving costly.

If the measure of any entity is about where it stands compared to its perceived potential, then i'll say this: The Abdullah Ahmad Badawi government is a dismal failure.

We could be world-beaters; we have geographical advantage (look at the map and understand how strategically-placed we are in nature's scheme of land and seas). We have minerals and ancient forests of untapped treasures, we have sunshine and rain, we have salt, fruit and rice. We speak the languages of four-fifths of the world's population. We were tutored in a system of governance and logistics, and inherited a formidable education system. In other words, we had software. One of the best in Asia.

Even today we have DNA - brilliant minds, nimble bodies, stout will. Mongrel breed. Cross-pollinated. We have ready builders. Bridge builders.

Yet despite all this, we are stunted as a nation. Far short of potential. We're a molehill trying to pass off as Olympus through propaganda pipes. And this is the ultimate failure of government, nothing else. We may be Malaysia, but we are atomic, not a compound. Not even an alloy. Not near forged steel. And they like it that way. Shred the fabric, strike fear, protect the hood. Divide.

Nathanial Tan decided to stand against such shit. He wants to build bridges. In his mind's eye, he sees a Malaysia fair and true; as fair and true to their dictionary meanings, and as fair and true to the understanding of those with virtue. Unlike many who slither and slide in government, you know he has a calcium-rich upright spine. For some twisted reason, this is not a desirable trait.

Of the millions of lines written, and comments left behind by readers in hundreds of local blogs which are more scandalous and cause for serious concern, they picked on Nat.

They hauled his mortal bones and ran off. You may say that for quite a few hours he was technically kidnapped; friends, family and feisty gf were given the fright of their lives by the elusive cops that Friday evening. His whereabouts were not divulged by the authorities. There remains a grave air of uncertainty about his immediate fate because of the continuing cruel and unnecessary reticence on the part of the supposed vanguards of peace and order. Whatever happened to basic rights?

But you can't put a good man and his fraternity down. Not till hell freezes over.

i do not know if we've hit the bottom. All i know is we shall continue to stand for principles. Because it is principles which will stand; eons after the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi government has crumbled and recorded as the period when true bridges were forcedly left unbuilt and Malaysia was an archipelago of divided islands in the fearsome Osa-Isa sea.


graphics: courtesy Mob's Crib