Torture, suicide and 47 days of hunger

ISA FOCUS “Outside, eight years seems like a very long time. Inside, you're looking at the same wall, the same tree. It doesn't feel that long,” said the man who was detained at the age of 20 for allegedly being pro-communist.

In fact, Chong Tong Sin, who was first held at the Muar detention camp prior to the building of the Kamunting Camp, recalled his initial ISA days as being “like in a university”, with so many make-shift classes and new people coming in that there was “not enough time”.

The move to Kamunting in 1973 also promised good things. Vast and new, the “200 to 300” detainees who were moved from Muar to the Perak facility felt 'freer' there, until a detainee committed suicide.

“There was something wrong with his ear. He would hear a sound, day and night. It would be quiet outside, but he'll still hear the sound. We felt he was tortured so bad that he finally had to commit suicide,” Chong said.

Speaking between drags of a cigarette in an interview last week, Chong said those who were heavily involved in underground activities were severely tortured during interrogation.

“Normal torture is to put you in an air-conditioned room and take off your clothes. Or they put a barrel over your head and hit the barrel.

“For 24 to 36 hours... (the interrogators) take turns, but (the detainees) sit there non-stop. (They) can't sleep or anything. Assault is a given. But I was never tortured, maybe because I didn't know anything,” he said.

Hunger strike

The suicide triggered a demonstration in the camp, with detainees demanding better treatment. News of the demonstration spread to the detention camp in Batu Gajah, where Chong said detainees were also ill-treated.

It was then that the Batu Gajah detainees began a hunger strike.

“When we (in Kamunting) heard about that, and we had no choice. We had to support them. So we started a hunger strike too,” said the 64-year-old.

To deal with this, wardens moved all Kamunting detainees to Batu Gajah, which was deemed an easier facility to control as there were cells.

“When we got to the Batu Gajah camp, everybody was beaten up. There was a lane through which we had to walk to get to the cells.

“The prison guards and Special Branch men beat us up as we walked through the lane. Some people collapsed, but they continued to beat them up until they entered the cells,” he recalled.

They would be locked up in the cells in Batu Gajah for 36 days in all - safe for visits from doctors to check on their health. The Batu Gajah detainees kept their hunger strike for 47 days.

“Even if they opened the door, we wouldn't have been able to leave the cell. We were so weak,” he said, adding that the wardens would call on them, every day, to give up their strike and to eat.

Food that was pushed through, into the cells, was pushed back, for any sign of defeat would mean going back to Kamunting. Some detainees, though, did give in, and were packed up back to Kamunting. Chong prevailed.

During the 47 days, families of the detainees also held demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur to apply pressure on the government and several demands for better treatment of the detainees were also made.

A social activist still

When the strike ended, Chong remained in Batu Gajah and was released in 1978. During the eight years, Chong was also taken out of detention to serve several months in jail for illegal assembly.

Like other detainees, he clashed with wardens when they tried to handcuff him to take him to court for the hearings, as well as for visits to the hospital or dentist.

“We were not criminals, so to us it is wrong to handcuff us. They will say, “No handcuff, no leaving the camp...”.

It was the warden's duty to send the detainees for their court hearings.

“We refused to put on the cuffs, so what do they do? They grab hold of us and we fight. We get whacked on the head. It was normal. But finally, we'll give in and go,” he said.

When Chong was released in 1978, he learned that the little boy who was his neighbour was now old enough to drive.

“You become kind of spaced out... After a year, you'll slowly adjust... For me, it wasn't so difficult. I got out and did work,” he said.

Nine years after his release, he joined Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) and found himself demonstrating against the arrest of more than 100 people under ISA in Operation Lallang.

Now a book publisher, Chong, who believes he is still under surveillance, has little regret about his time in ISA - a period of history his 19-year-old only child is “not too interested” to learn about.

“I am not highly educated. If I wasn't detained under ISA, I could have had more children, or maybe I would have ended up as a drug addict.

“To me, if they catch me, they catch me. When I get out, I’ll continue doing what I did,” Chong added, matter-of-factly.