Ex-detainee Mr Vincent Cheng has spoken out against his ban from speaking at a seminar at the National Library (see here). Mr Cheng who was detained for three years from 1987 to 1990 was beaten and severely abused by police officers at the Internal Security Department officers during his imprisonment.
No one has been held accountable for the terrible injustice and Mr Cheng has kept silent all these years. "I still bear the scars," he said in a letter to Ms Amy Gay, an official of the National Library Board (NLB).
After banning him as a speaker at a forum entitled "Singapore History: Who Writes The Script?" held last Friday, the NLB added insult to injury and told Mr Cheng that he could attend as a listener.
Thanks but no thanks. The ex-detainee said, "I will be staying away from this event as a protest to the arbitrary suppression of my right of free expression as a panel speaker in the spirit of the Consitution of Singapore." (Click here for to read the exchange of letters between Mr Cheng and Ms Gay).
In 1987, the Government arrested Mr Cheng and 21 other social activists and church workers for conspiring to violently stage a coup. Few believed the PAP's story but could do little because of the Government's use of raw power to silenced the entire population.
Another detainee, Ms Teo Soh Lung, who was accused with Mr Cheng and severely abused under detention for two years has yet to reveal her experience of the cruelty she suffered. With the Internet, however, the truth is beginning to bubble up. The PAP cannot keep the lid sealed any more.
Mr Cheng and some of the other detainees have begun to publish their side of the stories. Earlier detainees such as Dr Lim Hock Siew and Mr Said Zahari have also spoken out. The two opposition leaders were detained for 20 and 17 years respectively in 1963 with the help of the Brtitish colonial government.
Dr Lim has called for Mr Lee Kuan Yew to apologise to him while Mr Zahari has written his memoirs and recorded an interview where he recounted the 17 years of abuse he suffered at the hands of Mr Lee.
Another long-term ISA detainee, Mr Michael Fernandez, is working on a book relating how he had suffered under the PAP regime. (Watch video here).
The ISA has been wielded by the PAP to crush dissent it Singapore and rob Singaporeans of the democratic system we were promised at the birth of our Republic.
The SDP has steadfastly called for the abolition of the ISA. Such a law that is so egregiously abused by the ruling party has no place in modern Singapore. In addition, there must be an accounting of the abuse. Justice must prevail.
Mon 07 Jun 2010 11:49 AM
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Jufrie - Beatings indeed take place
As a detainee myself in the late seventies I hereby confirm that detainees do not only suffer sleep deprivation due to very long hours of interrogation in ice-cold rooms (some continually for six days) but are also subjected to beatings. One ex-detainee, who has since passed away, even told me that he was made to drink urine.
The names of ISD officers who laid their hands and legs (yes legs) on me are still very much in my mind. The beatings were so severe that the lower part of my body went limp and I had to be sent to the prison hospital in Changi for observation.
Matters were made intolerable for me because when my beloved mother passed away while I was under detention I was not even allowed to attend her funeral. We are dealing with people who are less than human beings and who are devoid of emotions. They live only to please their political masters.
Civil servants should serve the people and the nation, not political parties.
Many of the ISD officers, if not all, have retired. I hear many are living miserable lives.
May God have mercy on them for being loyal servants to their cruel political masters.
I believe the then Dir ISD in the late 70s was Mr Yoong Siew Wah.He is now anti-LKY, anti-PAP and supports the Oppo whole-heartedly. He has a regular blog "Singapore recalcitrant".
Jufrie - you should ask him why he condoned cruel and physical abuse of IS detainees who are not criminals when he was the boss of ISD in the 70s.
Mon 07 Jun 2010 6:00 PM
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quantum - Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo Bay?
Yes! I guess Yoong Siew Wah can shed some light why such cruelty and torture were performed and as Director ISD at that time why he did not stop it.
I guess I can answer for Siew Wah. He was under his master control and did he have a choice? Do it or walk out of it. Well, he did it.
Siew Wah should chronicled his first hand experience in a tell-all book of his days as ISD director and what he was asked to do and do it without mercy.
With a twist of fate Yoong Siew Wah is arch-enemy of PAP and LKY now. Now is the time to expose everything. Go for it man !
Tue 08 Jun 2010 10:01 AM
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Tan Tai Wei
Such allegations of police cruelty is believable.
I recall an incident by a side road in the Upper Serangoon area. A man already handcuffed behind was punched and kicked, then kicked into the drain. He struggled to get up, and when he was just reaching, he was kicked again and rolled back down, etc.
That happened in public. Imagine what happened in the police lock-up!
Lee Hsien Loong once said to the effect that without pressure at interrogation, we can't expect criminals (and political detainees?) to confess, etc.
Did he mean to include such brutality? Probably not, but then, since he left it vague, who knows how those more brawn and brain people in ISD would have interpreted such pronouncements?
I served in the police once as a NS man. We had occasion to ask an officer about such brutality. All he was willing to actually say was something in self-vindication : "I would myself never hurt a defenceless person". The rest of what he meant waa told in body language and a smile of corporate guilt.
Tue 08 Jun 2010 10:32 AM
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Tan Tai Wei
I just read that letter by the National Library to Cheng.
What elaborate rationalisation! (Truths are usually simple and atraightforward. Lies need to be spun. Is it not said that once you told a lie, you would need to tell many more in order to cover up?)
A short test would bring out the real truth.
Would the National Library have objected had another non-academic, say some nonentity from the People's Association, been included at the last minute as speaker in that forum?
Tue 08 Jun 2010 10:49 AM
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maxchew - Will Mr Yoong Siew Wah tell all?
Mr YSW is currently on superscale pension and medical benefits.
I don't think he wants to risk losing them now to tell all.
Besides the Official Secrets Act, LKY and his cronies can slap him with so many other "crimes", and even ISA detention. Not nice for an octogenarian ex-Dir ISD to be housed at the very same prison he sent so many in the 60s and 70s. His life would have come full-circle.
Mr Yoong should wait till after the coming GE (Sep2010?). If the results are similar to MY's GE in 2008, he can quite safely start on his memoirs.I hope he does so......
Tue 08 Jun 2010 7:17 PM
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Jufrie - Yoong Siew Wah wasn't thr ISD Director
As far as I could recall the Director of ISD during my dentention was not Mr. Yoong. It was has successor, Mr. Lim Chye Heng.
But all the same they only come to their realisation/awakening after they have left service and when death stares them in the eye. But of course it's never too late to repent and make amends. We don't have to tell them what to do. Should they do the right thing God may forgive them. Otherwise, like so many of them, life can be so miserable.
Wed 09 Jun 2010 2:23 PM
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Natalie
i support Mr Vincent Cheng for speaking up against his ban for speaking at a seminar at the National Library.
Seriously,by not allowing him to share his views about Singapore's history,aren't they admitting that something must be fishy? That's why they are scared of open public debate?
Another issue: i am absolutely disgusted by the way the ISD tortures detainees. I am sure many young singaporeans do not know of the cruelty of the ISD and the police. Most young people still view the SD as an unfortunate but "righteous" evil that has to be accepted for the sake of our country's safety.The police force is still unquestioningly seen as a symbol of justice.I wonder if being just means you are alloed to torture people behind closed doors when no one else knows.If these methods of interrogation are so effective in getting criminals and political detainees to "confess",then why not as a deterrent,tell the public loud and clear what punishment will await them should they be detained? Reading about these first-hand accounts of violence condoned by the government really makes me lose respect for them.
Thu 10 Jun 2010 6:43 AM
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natalizah - Raped while in Police Custody
In July 2008, while I was being held in police custody at Jurong Police Division, I was raped by a man who identified himself as "Vickreman". Three policewoman also aided that man in raping me, as I result of which I became pregnant, and now have a 13-month-old daughter. I have since then obtained political asylum in the United States, and can now tell my story as the SPF cannot get to me here.
The police in Singapore still abuses regular prisoners (ie. not political detainees) in order to obtain a confession, or just for fun. The government of Singapore may have fooled the whole world into thinking that they are clean and uncorrupt, but every police station in Singapore is a Guantanamo Bay unto itself.
Sun 13 Jun 2010 10:29 PM
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quantum
Why is service to community regarded as subversion?
Sat 19 Jun 2010 12:06 AM|
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quantum - Malaysia pressed by UN over detentions without tri
Malaysia has been urged to repeal security laws that allow for detention without trial.
The recommendation was made by UN officials investigating alleged widespread abuse of detainees.
According to the UN group, almost all those it interviewed said they were tortured or mistreated in Malaysia's detention centres.
Malaysia says it is amending the laws, but has not yet said how.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention spent a week visiting prisons and detention centres.
It reported that between 2003 and 2007, over 1,500 people died while being held by authorities.
Of the detainees it interviewed, almost all complained of beatings, being confined in small spaces without light and having dirty water thrown on them.
No appeal
That is in stark contrast to the country's prisons, where there were no allegations of abuse, says the BBC's Jennifer Pak in Kuala Lumpur.
Mr Malick Sow, who led the UN working group, said people preferred being in prison rather than police stations and immigration detention centres, because they felt safer there.
He said much of the abuse happened in the initial period of detention when detainees are not allowed to contact their lawyer or family.
He said the problem was more acute under the country's preventive laws including the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial for up to 60 days with the possibility of extensions for years.
The law has been used in the past against politicians and journalists.
Those held under the Act have no access to judicial appeal.
However, fewer people have been held under the law in recent years and the Malaysian government is expected to table amendments to address some of the issues next month.
Ex-detainee Mr Vincent Cheng has spoken out against his ban from speaking at a seminar at the National Library (see here). Mr Cheng who was detained for three years from 1987 to 1990 was beaten and severely abused by police officers at the Internal Security Department officers during his imprisonment.
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The names of ISD officers who laid their hands and legs (yes legs) on me are still very much in my mind. The beatings were so severe that the lower part of my body went limp and I had to be sent to the prison hospital in Changi for observation.
Matters were made intolerable for me because when my beloved mother passed away while I was under detention I was not even allowed to attend her funeral. We are dealing with people who are less than human beings and who are devoid of emotions. They live only to please their political masters.
Civil servants should serve the people and the nation, not political parties.
Many of the ISD officers, if not all, have retired. I hear many are living miserable lives.
May God have mercy on them for being loyal servants to their cruel political masters.
The full story is yet to be told.