SHAH ALAM: The Selangor Government has offered cash aid to families of 17 Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees for Hari Raya and Deepavali.
Rodziah Ismail, who chaired the state’s Welfare, Women’s Affairs, Science, Technology and Innovation Committee, said the families, including those of the five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders and Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin, would receive RM500 each.
This was a gesture from the state government to help the wives and the children of the detainees through the festive period, she said before presenting part of the aid to Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI) representatives Norlaila Othman and Nashita Md Noor at the State Secretariat building here yesterday.
Rodziah said the state government would continue to fight for the abolition of the ISA and push the Federal Government for the release of the detainees.
She also said the state government had been supporting the travel costs for the families to visit the detainees.
The state government would also help the families by providing their children who wanted to pursue higher learning with scholarships through Yayasan Selangor, she added.
Norlaila, whose husband has been detained at the Kamunting detention centre since April 2002, said the families of the detainees needed not only financial aid but also emotional support.
“It is touching to know that many people are supporting us.
“It has helped to lessen our pain. It is not an easy life for me and my 15-year-old son to go through the years without my husband,” said the teacher at a private school.
Norlaila said she and her son would go to the detention centre on the first and fourth day of Hari Raya to be with her husband.
