Sunday, August 06, 2006

Another 'shooting' story - Impervious to bullets?

Mohamed Amin Mohamed Razali, the leader of the Al'Maunah group, an Islamic sect, was executed on Friday for treason.

Apparently Al’Maunah was a martial arts sect, somewhat like the Chinese martial art fighters of the Righteous Harmony Society or 'The Righteous and Harmonious Fists', who brought about what westerners called the Boxer Rebellion - to the Chinese it was of course a patriotic uprising against foreigners in China. This sinister game of who's the 'rebel' and who's the 'patriot' is still being played out today in the Middle East, depending on who owns the pen or the airwaves.

Like the Al’Maunah group, the Righteous Harmony Society told their members that they were invulnerable to bullets. Unlike Al'Maunah, the Righteous Harmony Society was actually supported and abetted by the Chinese authorities against the intruding European powers.

The Chinese Boxer rebellion occurred between November 1899 to September 1901 against foreign influence in areas such as trade, politics, religion and technology in the dying years of the Qing Dynasty. A large number of China’s best martial art boxers found during their dying breaths that their spiritual tangkai (amulets) were no match for bullets.

Like what the Righteous Harmony Society did, the Al’Maunah sect claimed on grounds of religion, a holy war to oust Mahathir and set up an Islamic state.

They disguised themselves as soldiers and stole more than 100 weapons from two military armouries, sparking one of the country's biggest security alerts in July 2000. After they raided the military armouries, they retreated to a jungle hideout where they broadcast calls over army radio for Mahathir to quit.

Sometimes I wonder at simpletons like the leaders of Al'Maunah, who imagined the government would resign on the calls of a ragtag bunch. What an imbecilic lot - it's a pity that some young people had ruined their lives by marshalling around their banner.

The group surrendered after a four-day of siege by some 2,000 troops, during which they murdered a policeman and a soldier they had held hostage. I recall they tortured either the policeman or the soldier, or perhaps both. In that they were unforgivably brutal.

However, I am against the death sentence. What purpose has it served our nation by executing Mohamad Amin when he was no longer a public threat. Sure, he tortured and murdered two officials but his punishment should be a sentence in prison for the rest of his natural life.

Killing him only brings us down to his level, that of low brow psychopathic mentality or a perverted ‘an eye for an eye’ sense of acquittal.

Let us remove from our legal system the ultimate punishment.

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