House arrest should have
sufficed for Op Lallang
detainees, says ex-MP
Social activist Kua Kia Soong recounts his experience being detained without trial when 119 people were rounded up in the Operation Lallang of 1987.
Human rights and social activist Kua Kia Soong, who later became MP for Petaling Jaya while with the DAP, said the government should do away with the power of detention without trial, which still exists in three security laws.
In a statement to mark the 37th anniversary of the operation tomorrow, Kua reiterated his calls for an apology from Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He said it was Mahathir who as home minister at the time signed the detention orders on 119 civil society activists, intellectuals and opposition politicians rounded up in a massive police swoop under the now-repealed ISA.
He also urged the government to ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture, investigate all allegations of torture and bring perpetrators to book, and set up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission.
Kua was among the 119 detained in the operation (known in Malay as Ops Lalang), together with politicians Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Mahfuz Omar, Mohamad Sabu, Khalid Samad and Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, social activists Chandra Muzaffar and Meenakshi Raman, and unionist V David.
Kua recounted his experience of being held in solitary confinement for 60 days in a tiny cell and denied access to books and writing material.
“Our deprivation was so extreme in solitary confinement, that we could only count the days by carving them on the wall of our cell with a toothpaste tube,” he said.
“If we had at least been held under house arrest, we would have had access to our families; during the first 60 days they were only allowed to visit us at the discretion of the Special Branch,” he said.
House arrest is to be introduced in a new law proposed by the government as an alternative punishment for certain offences. Yesterday, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the law was aimed at giving first-time offenders a second chance.
Kua said that after the 60 days of detention, 46 of the detainees were sent to the Kamunting detention camp on a two-year detention order.
“I was held for 445 days and deprived of my freedom as a human being, as a citizen, as a father to my young children and my rightful place at home with my wife and family,” he added.
Kua called for the abolition of the power of detention without trial in the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, the Prevention of Crime Act 1959, and the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015.
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kt comments:
Ops Lallang was a MAHA-EVIL grab at MAHA-power
MAHA-KA-LAUT!
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