Uthaya on new mission to bring prison reforms

“Lawyers for Liberty is deeply concerned over the recent suggestion by former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Noor Abdullah that the detention conditions in prisons be made worse, by among others making it infested with rats, cockroaches and mosquitoes as a form of deterrence. Incredibly, Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed also agreed to the judge’s inhumane and cruel suggestion that is more appropriate in medieval times than in this day and age.”

- Lawyers for Liberty

INTERVIEW For the record, this was the same judge as reported in the Malay Mail, “The retired judge complained that such ‘huge’ sculptures of non-Muslim deities would make the Muslim-majority feel threatened. He also insisted that Islam comes above other faiths in the country, citing the federal constitution which states that Islam is the religion of the federation.” So there is that, too.

The fact that former Hindraf leader P Uthayakumar had to make a Hail Mary and apply to the judiciary on tenuous legal grounds to compel the federal government for a royal commission of inquiry should come as no surprise to people who know Uthayakumar and who are aware of the horrendous conditions that prisoners face every day in prisons in Malaysia.

After being a guest of the state where he was not treated like any other political prisoner - the reasons for this are well-established - Uthayakumar took it upon himself to challenge the state on the treatment of his fellow inmates. It says a lot about Uthayakumar who persists in fighting the right fight even though many in his place would just attempt to latch on to the most convenient political issue and forget about those left behind.

I visited Uthayakumar in jail before the treatment meted out to him got worse, where he told of his new-found calling of prison reform because “I look around and see so many people who go back to crime because this atmosphere encourages them to embrace the life they left behind outside prison instead of channelling their energies to something useful.”

To understand the ordeal of a man who wants prison reform in this country, readers are encouraged to read a Malaysiakini interview concerning his treatment - and Uthayakumar’s letter to the PM republished on DAP leader Lim Kit Siang’s blog.

It is a matter of public record that I was extremely critical of Hindraf but a friendship soon formed with Uthayakumar. Somehow, we always manage to reconnect and in the first of this two-part interview, Uthayakumar describes his ordeal of being a guest of the state.

What was the mistreatment against you personally?

Uthayakumar: On the very first day of my prison life, I was forced to remove my slippers before entering the Prison Deputy Superintendent’s office, sat on the floor when talking to him who was seated on his chair (behind a table). Thereafter, I was imprisoned with common criminals.

I protested as previously Malay and Chinese political prisoners like Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng, Mohamad Sabu, Mahfuz Omar, Ezam Mohd Nor, and even Mohd Khir Toyo after me, were not treated in this manner and were imprisoned at the Security Block or the Prison Hospital Block.

In fact I still have a running contempt of court case ably handled by my lawyer and friend M Manogar against the Kajang Prison director who had also refused to follow the High Court orders in imprisoning me at the Security Block or the Prison Hospital Block. Even in prison, I fought against racism.

On three occasions, I was locked up in an empty ‘dark room’ punishment cell with iron doors, dim light and no fresh air and sunlight for up to 16 days in a row, forced to sleep naked on the floor for refusing to “muster”.

Mustering means sitting on the floor in a row holding my knees for up to one hour, five times a day including under the hot sun and forced to bow my head down each time when officers and warders appear, a la the Japanese era.

Each time I went back after my court appearances, I was imprisoned with five other prisoners in the dirty 10 feet X 10 feet cell without a partition and forced to do my long and short calls within their sight and each time I contracted scabies.

The worst incident was when a fellow prisoner confessed to me - and later also to my two lawyers, M Manoharan and M Manogar - that he was ordered to kill me in prison. Despite my wife’s police report, zero action was taken.

Could you describe the process of entering the penal system?

The first things the warders do on ‘admission’ is to rudely shout and order the over 100 prisoners for the day to strip naked, come forward in rows of five, bend down and open up their buttocks using both their hands where they are checked by prison warders for any smuggled drugs, tobacco, etc.

A lawyer friend of mine and a four-term state assemblyman on a criminal breach of trust case had told me that even he was not spared of this shameful act. I was later told that at the Women’s Prison Wing next to us, it was both ways.

At the earliest opportunity, through my ‘smuggled’ letters, I wrote to the prime minister, home minister, director-general and director of Prisons. I wrote that the same could be done in a more humane manner by using the airport-type X-ray machines.

What about your daily existence?

There was the day-to-day cruel, inhumane, degrading and humiliating treatment of prisoners. At the smallest instance, prisoners are shouted at and beaten with rotans, slapped and kicked.

For purposes of expediency, Malay gangsters called ‘JLs’ (jurulatih) are also used to shout at, taunt and torture prisoners and in return, warders close an eye when they ‘pow’ prisoners off the basic monthly provisions that their families buy for them from the prison canteen.

Prisoners are served food in the very same dippers that they use to wash their backs with. Up to 10 prisoners are packed like sardines in one 10 feet by 10 feet cells, 24 hours a day - and for years, that is made worse by no running water supply for up to 16 hours a day. Imagine the toilet smell, and being forced to wash toilet bowls using their bare hands.

Also, one toothbrush, one bathing soap and one washing soap given only once in every three months for five prisoners in one cell. Only one set of prison uniform that usually goes unwashed, dirty bed bug-infested one inch foam mattress and blanket, and to sleep on the cold cement floor. Prisoners are denied pillows, beds or towels, and stay in dirty and unfumigated-for-years prison cells, causing one-third of prisoners to contract scabies.

Could you describe the health care prisoners receive?

Over 500 prisoners, including HIV and Hepatitis B prisoners, are forced to share one nail clipper and hair trimmer. Tuberculosis prisoners are imprisoned in the same building as other prisoners. No dental treatment. It is only ‘cabut gigi’ (tooth extraction) and that too only after a seven to eight months waiting list. Prison doctors treat handcuffed prisoners from behind a yellow line drawn about six feet away. I have seen prisoners die before my very eyes and it is the end of his story with the erasing and remarking of one less prisoner on the block’s whiteboard.

Reading the lawsuit, there is also allegations of corruption and disregard for human rights. Could you elaborate?

Prisoners are short-changed on their daily food rations. Prison meals are mostly one fried fish - the infamous ‘ikan jaket’ - four to five pieces of small carrots, ‘sup masak air’ (salt in warm water) a small piece of fruit and a half portion of rice. Hungry younger prisoners have been beaten up even for asking for some extra white rice. Only one cup of warm drinking water is given a day. In prison, hot water tastes so good, it is a luxury. Meal times can be next to the drain or even toilet bowls.

Then we have transvestite prisoners taken advantage of by warders, juvenile prisoners imprisoned with adults, Muslim prisoners not allowed to perform Friday prayers and forced to pray immediately next to and sometimes even facing the toilet bowl.

Tomorrow: ‘I consider myself lucky to have come out from prison alive’

---

S THAYAPARAN is commander (rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.- Mkini