Kit Siang to meet Abdullah Badawi to find out why Guan Eng is  being denied specialist treatment and care for his multiple ailments in Kajang Prison

(Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): I propose to meet the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to find out why DAP Deputy Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng, is being denied specialist treatment and care for his multiple ailments in Kajang Prison.

The Home Minister  should realise that the rejection of the application by DAP Members of Parliament and State Assembly members to visit Guan Eng in Kajang Prison for the Chinese New Year is not going to be good for the  public image  of the prison authorities, especially at a time when they are unable to explain:
 

• Why Guan Eng is being denied specialist treatment and care for his multiple ailments after losing 10 kg in five months’ of imprisonment; and
• The failure of the Malaysian prison system to comply with the minimum international standards for the treatment of prisoners in the prisons.

I would propose to Abdullah not only the importance and urgency of wide-ranging penal reforms, but specific proposals where such penal reform could be implemented immediately by the prison authorities by revoking cruel and inhumane rules.

One example is where all prisoners are immediately issued with mattress on the very first day of their incarceration, and not as at present, only after the third month - resulting in prisoners like Guan Eng wrecking his back and developing probably a life-long back problem after  being forced to sleep on the hard cement floor without any matrress or bedding whatsoever.

(9/2/99)