Asia Times 4th May 2001

By Anil Netto

PENANG - Fears continue to grow for the physical and mental well-being of 10 opposition activists in Malaysia who are detained indefinitely, without trial, after their arrest last month. The 10 in detention, arrested at various times from April 10-26 under the Internal Security Act (ISA), are now being held at unknown locations. Family members have been unable to meet them. A court has also upheld their detention, after police said they made the arrests to prevent the activists from organizing anti-government protests and plotting against it.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) has written to police seeking access to the detainees but has so far been unable to meet them. Home Affairs Minister Abdullah Badawi asserted that the 10 detainees would not be "brutalized", amid concerns by activists who say they know from past detainees of the abuses that could be going on in detention. "We have had enough with one black eye," Badawi said, referring to the assault on former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim after he was arrested in 1998. "We don't want to see two or three more." Former police chief Rahim Noor was sentenced to a two-month prison term on April 30 for the assault.

Asked about the well-being of the detainees, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Jamil Johari responded, "What more safer place than in police hands?" However, Anwar Ibrahim and many other ISA detainees who had been victims of police brutality during the 60-day ISA interrogation period would probably have dissented and asserted that, under the circumstances, there is "no more dangerous place than in police hands", said Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party and himself a two-time ISA detainee.

ISA allows the indefinite detention of people without trial - a decision on whether to extend their detention is made by the government only after the first 60 days. Assurances by the authorities, however, have not convinced rights activists, relatives, opposition politicians, and former ISA detainees, who say detainees are likely to face harsh interrogation by rotating teams of interrogators, sleep deprivation, and isolation from the outside world. In the first of two trials of Anwar, who is serving 15 years in jail for abuse of power and sodomy, a high-ranking police officer described how harsh interrogation techniques were used to intimidate and "turn over" detainees before they were "neutralized". These techniques were probably perfected during the period from the 1950s to the late 1970s when authorities had to quell a communist insurrection the rationale for the ISA in the first place.

But critics of the ISA allege the law has also been used to silence political opponents of the government, while denying them their basic rights. Alleged police brutality on detainees exploded into the news soon after Anwar's initial detention, when former police chief Rahim Noor assaulted a blindfolded and handcuffed Anwar in a cell at the Bukit Aman national police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. Anwar's black eye was flashed on television screens across the world when he emerged in court days later to face corruption charges. The black eye sparked public outrage and proved to be a rallying point for the rights movement in its struggle to abolish the ISA.

Opposition to the ISA among Anwar supporters, largely ethnic Malay Muslims, mounted with the onset of reformasi (the reform movement). Until then, Malays, who make up about half the population and the traditional support base of the ruling party of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, had appeared to tolerate the ISA as a necessary evil. All that changed with the onset of reformasi, and many Malays are today among the most vehemently opposed to the act - indeed, an Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) was launched April 30 in Kuala Lumpur by activists and politicians.

Amid the latest round of objections to the ISA, the court's sentence against Rahim may well be a small victory of sorts. Rejecting an appeal by Rahim against a jail term, the Court of Appeal described the 1998 assault on Anwar as "despicable and inhumane" and directed subordinate courts to impose "nothing short of a custodial sentence" in cases of a similar nature. The court also chided prosecutors for not pressing for a heavier sentence.

But activists are well aware of worrisome testimonies by other ISA detainees, stories that fuel their anxiety today. Based on her experience in detention, women's movement activist Irene Xavier said in a statement circulated on the Internet, "There is only one word to describe interrogation during the 60 days - it is violent." She added, "I want to say that I experienced physical violence for the first time in my life during so-called safe custody of the [police]."

Xavier described how her interrogator gave her the choice of a wooden or metal stick for a beating. She said she was not sure if she stated her preference, but the interrogator started beating her with a wooden beam "which looked very like the two-by-four beams that are used in carpentry". "He beat me on the legs and particularly hard on the soles of my feet," she recalled. "I was required to hold my feet [out] one at a time so that he could beat the soles." The beating was accompanied by verbal abuse, she said.

Xavier was among some 3,000 people, including former ISA detainees, relatives of current detainees, rights activists, and opposition politicians who packed a hall in the capital for the launch of the Abolish ISA Movement on Monday night. So far, 76 public interest groups, opposition parties, trade unions, and student groups have joined the movement. Asked to comment on the launch of the movement, Mahathir replied, "Oh, congratulations to them."

As concern for the detainees' well-being mounts, the AIM coalition is now planning a nationwide roadshow to protest against the ISA and call for its repeal, but few among the activists are under any illusion that the campaign will be easy.