(Petaling Jaya, Friday): I
have this morning sent a second urgent fax to Deputy Prime Minister and
Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for permission to immediately
visit the six ISA reformasi activists, Mohamad Ezam Mohamad
Nor,
Hishamuddin Rais, Chua Tian Chang, Saari Sungib, Badrulamin Bahron and Lokman
Noor Adam who are on the tenth day of their hunger strike as his statement in
Bukit Mertajam yesterday that the detainees had called off their hunger strike
and that the detainees had already begun to take their meals from Wednesday was
a gross and unfair misrepresentation of the truth.
In
my fax to Abdullah this morning, I said:
“This
is to refer to my urgent fax to you yesterday asking to be allowed to make an
immediate visit to Kamunting to meet the six ISA reformasi six who are now
undergoing the tenth day of their hunger strike.
I have ascertained that your statement yesterday that the detainees had
reportedly called off their hunger strike and had begun
taking their meals since Wednesday is incorrect and untrue, and a most
unfair misrepresentation of what is happening in Kamunting.
“In
the circumstances, I am renewing my fax yesterday asking to be allowed to visit
the six detainees in Kamunting out of national and international concern about
their health and wellbeing as well as in the best interests of the good name of
the country.”
Abdullah
said the Director-General of
Prisons had reported to him that
the detainees had already begun taking
their meals on Wednesday. Abdullah
should be very wary of such reports as the history of hunger strikes by Internal
Security Act (ISA) detainees have shown a consistent policy of deliberate misinformation
by the detention authorities to down-play the event to undermine public concern
and support or to break the will of the detainees by
defaming the hunger strikers.
For
instance, during the week-long hunger strike by 18 Operation Lalang detainees on
the anniversary of their detention in October/November 1988, the electronic and
printed media gave big play to the falsehoods uttered by the then Deputy Home
Minister, Datuk Megat Junid Megat Ayub that a few of the detainees, including
DAP leaders Karpal Singh, Lim Guan
Eng and Lau Dak Kee had been found to be “curi makan” during the hunger
strike.
When
pressed for evidence, neither Megat Junid nor the Superintendent of Kamunting
detention centre at the time could produce any evidence to substantiate such
falsehoods.
Subsequently,
whenever Megat Junid was questioned or challenged about his allegations that
Operation Lalang detainees had “curi makan” during the anniversary hunger
strike, Megat Junid had invariably evaded the issue by claiming that he was only
retailing what had been reported to him by his subordinates and that he was in
no position to personally substantiate the truth or otherwise of his allegations.
Abdullah
should have learnt from the dishonourable Megat Junid episode trying to defame
the Operation Lalang detainees on their anniversary hunger strike and he should
not have publicly retailed what the Director-General of Prisons had reported to
him about the six reformasi ISA hunger strikers unless he is prepared to put his
reputation on the line on their veracity either to resign as Home Minister if he
could not substantiate what was reported to him or
to sack the Director-General of Prisons for rumour-mongering. It will be the
height of Ministerial irresponsibility for Abdullah to escape accountability for
his statement by claiming that he was only repeating what had been reported to
him by his subordinates!
It
is most unfortunate that the first high-level government response
to the hunger strike by the six ISA reformasi activists is not only a misrepresentation of the truth but couched in such a truculent
and confrontationist language, completely devoid of sensitivity and
responsiveness to national and international concerns about the health and
welfare of the hunger strikers both inside and outside Kamunting detention
centre.
Abdullah
alleged that the hunger strike of the six reformasi activists was only to draw
public attention to their political struggles but they failed to gain the
support of the majority of the people in the country
Abdullah
should not politicise national and international concerns about the injustice of
detention-without-trial laws like the ISA and he should set the example of being able to differentiate
between the politics of the six detainees and the gross human rights violations
in incarcerating them without trial.
(19/4/2002)