Saari: "It came as a thunderous shock to me"

Seated inside my hotel room at the Bukit Jana golf resort in the countryside north of the old tin-mining town of Taiping, I wondered what was happening to my fellow friends still detained nearby under the ISA. I was at the golf resort not because I had picked up the sport after my release from ISA detention on 1 June 2003, but simply as part of my personal commitment to share with friends, my brothers and sisters, the injustices which my beloved wife, children and I had experienced under the ISA.

It was only two months ago that I had looked at Bukit Jana from a different vantage point: from inside the neighbouring Kamunting Detention Centre. While incarcerated there, I could see the majestic sight of Bukit Jana rising from the surrounding tropical landscape. In the shadow of this lush hill, my other Reformasi friends and I were robbed of our liberty and denied our basic right to freedom. Yes, we were political prisoners incarcerated only because of our political views, beliefs and commitments.

As I draft this article for my friend, (Aliran president) Ramakrishnan, I see the same majestic view of Bukit Jana - part of the undulating verdant terrain that includes the serene green of the resort, separated just a few metres away from the walls and razor-wires of the detention centre. Seated next to my beloved wife here, I suddenly realise I am free - so stark is the contrast in this country between freedom and detention. With the stroke of a pen, I was separated from my wife and children two years ago - and then, without any explanation from the Home Minister, I was returned to my family.

Upon reflection, Bukit Jana and the Kamunting camp represent two sides of Malaysian politics: the seemingly peaceful facade and the cruel side - separated only by the draconian ISA. The ISA has been used in the past not because of a threat to national security, but, alas, to silence dissent. In the case of the reformasi activists, the ISA was used to stop us from sharing our dissenting views with larger circles of patriotic Malaysians.

My JIM Friends

Both my wife and I took the opportunity to meet our friends in Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM) from day one of my release. We arranged to meet them on all occasions that I was invited for ceramahs across the country organised by PAS, keADILan, Parti Rakyat Malaysia, Aliran and Barisan Alternatif. These JIM friends have been our close associates with whom we have gone through thick and thin on many occasions in our struggle for a better Malaysia. I am deeply indebted to them for their support, love, kindness and prayers.

In my nationwide roadshow to campaign against the ISA, any session with them, no matter how brief, was a solace for me. They provided me with the strength that I needed - and I know that there are still people out there who are willing to abandon their fear in facing the intimidation and harassment of the ISA. I keep telling them, in the hope that they will be convinced, that the reason the ISA is so �successful� is that it has instilled fear - in most cases, permanently - in the hearts of Malaysians, whether lay persons or activists.

I told them how Aliza, Bahirah, Zumrah, Farah, Tian See, Mak Cik Aishah and other women family members of the Reformasi Six had shown the way in standing up against the ISA. They had exposed the ISA for what it was: nothing but harassment and intimidation! Now they had broken the rock-solid wall of fear - fear of the intimidation and harassment by Special Branch personnel and other agents of the authorities. The wives and family members of the Reformasi Six refused to consider themselves under seige; instead they put those who had unjustly detained their loved ones under seige!

The main objective of meeting my JIM friends was to impress on them that they needed to abandon their fear in facing the ISA. The ISA would only be �successful� if they retreated in their resolve each time it was used by the government against dissidents. The government only seeks to intimidate and harass those who oppose and disagree with them. They want to instil fear in the public. Once the public is frightened and succumbs to the wishes of the government, it is a �victory� for authoritarian rule. I advised my brothers and sisters in JIM to be brave and vocal in challenging the wrongdoings of the government, especially in its use of the ISA to suppress dissent and rightful opposition.

This handful of my friends in JIM continue to be the backbone and prime-movers of the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI). They form the major support group looking into the welfare of the remaining detainees� families. These activists also constitute the main working group pressuring the government to release the remaining ISA detainees.

I pointed out to my JIM friends that when I was released, the mainstream media deliberately kept repeating that I was the former president of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) (the alleged terrorist network) instead of former president of Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM), a legally registered society. I advised my friends, who have been close associates of mine for almost two decades, to be wary as the government could have a hidden agenda or something �special� in store for them. I warned them that the ISA may also be used against them at any time.

Fuming Veterans

While at the resort, I took a break to meet a pakcik in Changkat Jering. I made a courtesy visit to his house as a gesture of appreciation for his kindness to the Reformasi Six while we were detained in Kamunting. He had managed to pass packs of durian to us in the Kamunting Detention Centre through my wife, Aliza. These durians were of supreme grade, of course. I remember how Hisham managed to keep the extras to be preserved as his favourite delicacy, the magnificent tempoyak!

The visit that I thought would be just an ordinary meeting turned out to be a revelation for me. There, waiting gracefully, were a couple of veterans whom I can regard as my pakciks.

There was Pak Hasan detained in 1948 under the British emergency regulations for close to two years. He was charged with memberontak or rebellion. He was an activist of Angkatan Pemuda Insaf (API). At the beginning of the Emergency in June 1948, he had joined the Special Constables (SC) set up by the British Administration in Malaya.

SC was headed by personnel who had served in the British special forces in Palestine.

According to the pakciks, they had to call their superiors �Tuan Palestin�, and some of them were Jews serving in the British army in Palestine. Soon after Pak Hasan joined the SC, he was detained under the emergency regulations, interrogated and then detained without trial for close to two years.

While telling me his story, his eyes blazed with anger and hatred. He blamed UMNO for his unjust detention. According to him, UMNO had spread lies about him by telling the the public that API actually stood for Angkatan Pembunuh Inggeris (Movement to Kill the British)!. He was accused of planning to use arms against the British. They alleged that Pak Hassan�s real reason for joining the SC was not to help contain the communist insurgency. Rather, they claimed that his real intention was to capatalise on the weapons abundantly available in the SC squad to fight the British from inside. Pure lies cost Pak Hassan�s two years of his life under detention without trial!

There was Tuan Guru Hj Mohd Arif who was detained for 50 days under the ISA in 1985. The reason he was deemed a threat to national security was that he gave speeches in support of Ustaz Ibrahim Libya and other PAS members who were killed in Memali as shahids or martyrs. The government was not happy with his speeches, which he delivered throughout Perak. So he was detained in order to silence him.

Ironically, during those 50 days of detention, he was also blamed for once equating UMNO with the communists. Years earlier, prior to his detention, he had said that the political philosophy of UMNO is based on materialism - the same as the dialectic materialism upheld by communism. Thus, according to Tuan Guru Hj Mohd Arif, UMNO is communist if viewed from this philosophical foundation. The fact that he was blamed for putting forward such a view clearly showed that the government had zero tolerance for views contrary to its own.

The Screaming

One pakcik Zainal related a scary story to me. He told me that in the 1950s, as a police constable, he was assigned to guard a certain place. He wondered why, when night fell, he could hear people screaming (�dengar suara menjerit�). Later on he came to know that that the place was the �Holding Centre�, where the Special Branch interrogated detainees.

But suddenly, in this humble home of Pakcik Zainal, the story unfolded. Pakcik Zainal told me that this particular ISA victim told him that during police interrogation every night, he was undressed, had foreign objects inserted into his anus and was forced to make a confession that he was sodomised by Anwar.

The screaming, Pakcik Zainal presumed, must have come from detainees tortured during police interrogation. He said the place was at a secret location between PULAPOL and KEMENTAH in Jalan Semarak-Jalan Padang Tembak, Kuala Lumpur.

Right away it triggered in my mind an interview conducted by Zunar for Harakah in which he mentioned this secret location. I responded that the front facade of this secret location had to be the Henslet�s Scout Camp. Yes, I was there in 1968 attending a scout jamboree camp as a boy scout and again, in 2001, as an ISA detainee. Again, like Bukit Jana and the Kamunting camp, that green looking facade at Jalan Padang Tembak represents both sides of Malaysia, the friendly scout camp and the cruel and repressive ISA detention centre.

Pakcik Zainal also encouraged me to file a legal suit against the police as the Federal Court had ruled that their arrest and detention of the Reformasi Six was unlawful, mala fide (made in bad faith) and politically motivated. I told him that I would file the legal suit against the government of Malaysia and Tan Sri Norian Mai both as the IGP and in his individual capacity. Pakcik Zainal also reminded me to make sure that I file a suit against the police officer who came to arrest me. Yes, I told him that I would do that as well as filing legal suits against all SB officials who interrogated me throughout my first 60-day detention.

Shocking Revelations

While I was listening to stories of other veterans who were mostly former police and military pensioners, Pakcik Zainal suddenly whispered something to me. He wanted to know whether I knew somebody whose name he mentioned me. I told him I did. What he told me was a revelation as well as the answer to a question I had asked since September 1998, the year reformasi was unleashed.

I listened attentively to Pakcik Zainal. It came as a thunderous shock to me. I asked him many, many time to make sure that he was perfectly sure what he was talking about. He said he was very, very sure about it. That person himself told him the story. That person was one of those detained under the ISA a few days after Anwar Ibrahim was arrested on 20 September 1998. I personally know that person. As far as I know, he was an ISA victim of Operasi Dalil 1998 who was not willing to speak up after the trauma he underwent.

But suddenly, in this humble home of Pakcik Zainal, the story unfolded. Pakcik Zainal told me that this particular ISA victim told him that during police interrogation every night, he was undressed, had foreign objects inserted into his anus and was forced to make a confession that he was sodomised by Anwar. In the words of Pakcik Zainal: �Tiap tiap malam mereka telanjangkan saya, malu pakcik malu...mereka jolok dubur saya... dan tanya banyak banyak kali.. berapa kali Anwar liwat kamu.� (Every night, they stripped me; it was so humiliating, pakcik... they inserted objects into me...and repeatedly asked me..."how many times did Anwar sodomise you?")

I left Pakcik Zainal's house with mixed feelings of anger and shock at what I had heard about the fate of a friend of mine under ISA detention in 1998.

I had earlier heard of a different case of torture from Malik Husin - that he was sodomised with rubber tubing while in police custody. I had never doubted Malik's story, which I had already known after my release from ISA detention in November 1998.

But Pakcik Zainal�s story confirmed that such brutality was not only confined to the Reformasi detainees of 1998 but had also been inflicted on others.

The question is: who else was treated inhumanly in such a manner in police custody during that time? Thank Allah, though I was often confronted with the threat of being stripped and other vulgar threats such as �kau nampak kaki meja tu?.. aku jolok jubur kau pakai kayu tu nanti baru tau!� (you see this table leg?�I will stuff it up your behind, then you will know!), such inhuman treatment did not actually come close to happening to me. Unfortunately, such a barbaric act had befallen a friend who, I believe, commands so much respect especially amongst his professional community.

Bitterness and Anger

As I move on and on in the nationwide roadshows to share with friends, BA supporters and members of the public my personal experience of being detained under the ISA, the emphasis in my talks has shifted. I have moved from talking about my own predicament to speaking about the experience of others who had had suffered even more.

In Terengganu, Kelantan, Kedah, Perak and Johor, I met the wives, children, fathers and mothers of the remaining ISA detainees. I could easily sense their bitterness, anger and hatred towards the government. Even those family members who are shrouded with fear due to the SB�s harassment and intimidation could not hide their anger towards the government whose injustices had made them suffer so much.

As I meet more and more people, with lots of personal touch and little publicity and lime-light, more and more things are revealed about the injustice of the ISA. In Sarawak, I found out that a story which I had written briefly in one of my books while I was under detention seemed to get more input from people who personally knew the actual story and who personally knew the victims. As events unfold, I am determined to share this story with other concerned Malaysians in a credible magazine like this one. But that will take more time and I do not want my dear friend Rama to keep waiting for my very slow and late delivery - so maybe I will save that for another time.

Ampang, 31 July 2003

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