IN theSun’s interview with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, (Conversations, March 27) journalist Terence Fernandez makes a defamatory remark about me which has to be set right in the interest of accurate, honest journalism. He says that, “After Chandra was released from the ISA, he seemed to be more pro-establishment.”

I was released from detention under the ISA on Dec 18, 1987, after 52 days. At the end of January 1988 I issued a media statement as president of Aliran, in the name of a variety of NGOs, urging the government to free the rest of the ISA detainees and abolish the ISA. From May 1988 till the middle of 1989 I wrote a series of articles in the Aliran Monthly and spoke at a number of forums criticising the government for the unjust ouster of former Lord President Tun Salleh Abas, and the emasculation of the judiciary. In early 1990, together with a handful of other independent members, I resigned from the Majlis Perundingan Ekonomi Negara (Mapen), to protest what we regarded as the government’s manipulation of Mapen for electoral purposes.

It was only after I stepped down as president of Aliran in November 1991 and helped to found a new NGO with some friends in Penang called the Just World Trust in 1992 that I shifted my focus to international affairs. But when a major crisis erupted with the incarceration of, and assault on, Anwar in September 1998 I redirected my energies to Malaysian politics and was in the forefront of a movement called Adil which was not only critical of the Malaysian government’s treatment of Anwar but also of the subversion of democratic institutions. When an opposition political party called KeADILan Nasional was established on the foundations of this movement the following year, I was appointed its deputy president and even contested – and lost – the 1999 general election. I continued in this role for the next 2½ years. At the end of 2001, however, I withdrew completely from party politics and now concentrate upon Just activities and my academic work.

This brief record of my activities since my release from ISA belies Fernandez’s mischievous allegation that after my ISA release I “seemed to be more pro-establishment”.

Dr Chandra Muzaffar
Kuala Lumpur

Source: The Sun – March 31, 2008