Mengapa Isa?
By Alfian Sa'at
Written for Teater Ekamatra's Festival of 9 performances celebrating royalty, 'Istana 2000'
December 2004
(The performer appears, blindfolded. He is wearing a white tunic and a sarong. He is led in by an escort who is in a white shirt and black pants.
The escort leads the performer to a chair. The performer is made to sit down. In front of the performer is a table. On the table, the following items: A copy of the multilingual edition of the ISD booklet, a copy of the White Paper on Terrorism--downloadable from the Internet, a copy of the following text, a glass of water and a microphone.
The escort then unties the performer's blindfold. The escort walks to the end of the stage and switches on a video camera. We see an image of the performer on the TV screen(s) behind him. This image will change gradually as the performer is speaking: he is first seen to wear a moustache, then a goatee, then a beard--which increases in length.
The performer begins to read the following text. He is also required to read the title of each numbered section--eg, Number 1: The ISA, Number 2: Mengapa Isa? etc. Each section should be printed on a separate piece of paper.
The tone used should be as objective as possible--not angry, not polemical. The performer is reciting facts.)
1) The ISA
The Internal Security Act (ISA) was enacted in 1963 to empower the Executive with enhanced capabilities to deal with current or emergent threats to national security. The ISA’s main prescription is the ‘preventive detention’ of a suspect(s) without trial in an open court for a period of two years. The Act also allows the police or more specifically, officers from the Internal Security Department (ISD), to arrest and detain suspects pending investigations for a maximum period of thirty days.
In December 2001, the Internal Security Department arrested fifteen persons, of whom thirteen were members of a radical, regional Islamic group called Jemaah Islamiyah, or JI. The thirteen members were detained whilst the remaining two were released in January 2002 on Restriction Order. At the time of the arrests, members of this group had been planning a series of bomb attacks in Singapore that would have had catastrophic consequences.
2) Mengapa Isa?
In January 2003, the Ministry of Home Affairs published a booklet called ‘Why the ISA?’ This booklet was also later available in a multilingual edition.
In Malay, the ISA is translated as Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri. This would have generated the acronym ‘AKDN’. However, on the booklet, the English acronym has been retained. And thus, ladies and gentleman, I present to you, Mengapa ISA?
Or rather, Mengapa Isa?
Isa is the name of a prophet in the Quran. To Christians, the prophet Isa is more commonly known as Jesus. Thus if we translate this back to English, we have a title which reads:
Why Jesus?
A missionary would tell you. Because He is the Way. Because He is your Salvation. Because only He can show you the True Path.
Through a slippage, we can see how a booklet that purports to legitimise the ISA can also be read as an evangelical pamphlet. Political propaganda and religious propaganda are one. But that’s what got those thirteen JI members into trouble, isn’t it? They were, in essence, mixing politics with religion.
3) Jesus and Isa
There are many differences in the representation of Jesus found in the Bible and the Quran. The Quran, for example, rejects the notion that Jesus was the Son of God. To Muslims, Jesus was one among a long line of messengers who brought God’s Word to human beings. There are also other notable differences:
The Bible claims that Jesus died when he was 33; in one of the Hadiths the age of his death is given as 120.
The Bible claims that Jesus was crucified on the cross; the Quran’s claim is that Jesus was neither killed nor crucified, but that his soul was taken by God, as with any other mortal.
The Bible claims that Jesus was resurrected three days after; in the Quran there is no such account.
The question of course is, which version is accurate? It all depends on what you read.
It depends on what you want to believe.
4) The Number 13
During the last supper, twelve of Jesus’ disciples sat with him. There is lamb, bread and wine on the table. Suddenly, Jesus spoke. He said, “one of you who eats with me shall betray me”. This man later turned out to be Judas Iscariot, who later identified Jesus to his aggressors with a kiss on the cheek.
Because there were thirteen people present during this Passover supper, the number thirteen is often regarded by some superstitious Christians as being an unlucky number.
Of the fifteen men arrested in December 2001, thirteen were identified as JI members.
I think of these thirteen men sitting at a table. One of them says, “one of you who eats with me shall betray me”.
They go on eating in silence. There is no wine on the table. It is against their religion.
5) Jesus’ beard
There are no descriptions of Jesus’ physical appearance in the New Testament. However, starting in the sixth century, a new common appearance for Jesus emerged. Much of this was based on the fact that Jewish custom required men to keep beards.
During the Byzantine period, the predominant image was of ‘Christ Pantocrator’—the ruler of all, imperial, haloed and awesome.
The Gothic Era ushered in ‘Christ as Salvator Mundi’, which emphasised His physical aspects.
Renaissance painters developed images of Christ which though distinctly and palpably human, retained traces of the divine.
During the Baroque era, artists like Rembrandt ventured further into capturing the sublime in Christ’s facial expressions.
In all of these depictions, Christ was bearded.
The last battle between the beardless and bearded Christ took place during the Renaissance. The beardless Christ was sporadically seen on ivories and miniatures and eventually lost its popularity. The last appearance of the beardless Christ was in Scandinavian religious art of the thirteenth century.
6) The Terrorist’s Beard
In 2001, an American Sikh, Balbir Singh Sodi, was shot dead outside a gas station in Arizona.
His attacker claimed that it was in retaliation for the September 11 attacks just 6 days before. While being handcuffed, he said, "I am for America all the way".
The attacker had mistaken Mr Singh for a Muslim on account of his turban and beard.
The prayer at the customs checkpoint, where they practise racial profiling: ‘Give us each day our daily beard'.
7) The Beard and Time
In the movie ‘Cast Away’, directed by Robert Zemeckis, a character played by Tom Hanks is stranded on an island. Without any shaving implements at hand, the character grows a beard. As time goes by, the beard becomes more luxuriant.
The beard as signifier of the passage of time is a common one. We think of Robinson Crusoe, also stranded on an island, in the eponymous novel by Daniel Defoe. His beard was described as a ‘fourth of a yard long’.
In the short story 'Rip Van Winkle' by Washington Irvine, a man goes hunting at the Catskill Mountains, drinks some liquor offered to him by a stranger, and falls asleep for 20 years. When he wakes up, he discovers that his beard had grown ‘a foot long’.
8) Chia Thye Poh
Chia Thye Poh was a university Physics lecturer. In 1966, he was elected as a candidate of an opposition party, Barisan Sosialis, which was formed as a splinter group from the PAP.
In that same year, he was arrested under the ISA. He was 25 years old. Chia Thye Poh was never formally tried in court. It was only 20 years later when the government accused him of being a Communist.
The accusation of being a communist is a very strategic one. Supposedly if you were a Communist, one of the vows you had to take during indoctrination was that you should never confess that you are one. Chia Thye Poh refused to sign the confession that he was a Communist whose goal was the violent overthrow of the government. Hence, he was a Communist.
In 1989 he was sent into exile on an island, much like Robinson Crusoe. For the next nine years he would call the island of Sentosa home. When he was finally released, with restrictive conditions, in 1998, he stepped, just like Rip Van Winkle, into unfamiliar surroundings.
It had been 32 long years.
9) Omissions
In the booklet I am holding now in my hand, there is absolutely no mention of Chia Thye Poh’s arrest in 1966.
There is also no mention of the infamous ‘Operation Coldstore’ of 1963, in which 113 student leaders, trade unionists and opposition leaders were rounded up in a supposed ‘anti-communist’ crackdown.
Also missing is an account of the so-called ‘Marxist Conspiracy’ of 1987. Codenamed ‘Operation Spectrum’, the ISD sweep arrested 22 people from diverse backgrounds and accused them of an obscure plot prejudicial to national security. Confessions were extracted from the detainees and telecast on television.
I would like to say that these are crimes of omission committed by whoever organised and compiled this booklet.
But there is a vicious irony in freely using the word ‘crime’ on a document about the ISA. The ISA, if you will recall, is a draconian piece of legislation that allows for arrest even before a crime has been established.
So I will say, ‘sins of omission’.
Who will die for these sins?
Where is Jesus?
10) The White Paper
In addition to the ‘Why the ISA?’ booklet, a White Paper on the JI and terrorism was published by the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 2003. There is convincing evidence in the document that the JI is a very real threat to Singapore’s security.
What the 'Why the ISA?' document tries to do is gain legitimacy for the ISA by focussing on actual security concerns.
What it fails to do is address the potential for the ISA to be abused as an instrument for the suppression of political opponents.
There is still too much discretionary power vested in the Executive, without a corresponding system of checks and balances by the Judiciary. An Advisory Board exists to review cases, but it operates under advice from the President.
What this means is that anytime someone decides to call you 1) a Communist 2) a Communalist 3) a Spy involved in Espionage Actvities 4) a Terrorist, you are in fucking deep shit.
Not even prayer can help you.
11) Jesus the Martyr
Before the Crucifixion, Jesus Christ was subjected to two trials.
One was a religious one, where the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas presided over the proceedings.
The other was a civil trial, where His fate was decided by the Roman Pontius Pilate.
He spoke about His beliefs.
The people listened to Him speaking about His beliefs.
They remembered. They recorded. They judged.
He died for his beliefs. As a martyr.
12) Why Why Why?
Why Jesus?
There is more than one way to interpret this question.
Firstly: Why Jesus? Why Jesus and not some other person?
Secondly: Why Jesus? Why did you do it?
It depends on where the stress falls.
Bear these two meanings in mind as I read out a list of thirteen names.
Why Haji Ibrahim bin Haji Maidin?
Why Mohamad Anuar bin Margono?
Why Mohamed Khalim bin Jaffar?
Why Ja’afar bin Mistooki?
Why Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana?
Why Fathi Abu Bakar Bafana?
Why Mohamed Elias s/o Mohamed Khan?
Why Mohamed Nazir bin Mohmmed Uthman?
Why Adnan bin Musa?
Why Halim bin Hussain?
Why Hashim bin Abas?
Why Andrew Gerard @ Ali Ridha bin Abdullah?
Why Othman bin Mohamed?
The last of the thirteen was arrested on the 24th December 2001, also known as Christmas Eve. This is exactly one day before the date assigned as the day Jesus Christ was born.
13) The Sacrifice
(At this point, the performer takes out a disposable shaver. He places the glass in front of him. He is clean-cut, but nevertheless brings the shaver to his face. He starts shaving his face.
This is penance for the offence he has yet to commit.
He places the shaver in the glass of water. He stirs the water. It turns red. He shaves again, rinses the shaver in the water. He does this several times. The water turns a deep red. The lights fade.)
End
