Ex-detainees Nurul and Tian call for prison reforms

PKR vice-presidents Nurul Izzah Anwar and Tian Chua have urged Putrajaya to initiate prison reforms which focus on rehabilitation and education instead of punishment.

At a press conference for the launch of Tian’s new book “Tian Chua’s Kajang Diary: A Prison Retreat,” guest-of-honour Nurul said that prison reforms must constitute a significant part of the new government’s agenda.

“I will propose several suggestions to the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) on the state of prisons and lock-up facilities,” she said, adding that the current detention system was punitive and should re-focus on rehabilitation.

She noted that although former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had mentioned prison reform in Parliament, there was no political will to implement it under the BN government.

“They have a document. He (Zahid) was supposed to have a meeting. It was mentioned in Parliament, in fact,” said Nurul who is also the Permatang Pauh MP.

Tian, meanwhile, pointed out that incarceration should be used as an opportunity to educate people and make them useful when they are released into society again.

“When they are in prison, they are just sitting by idly. And when they come out, they also feel they are disjointed from society.

“So, prisons are not about keeping you away and isolated from society.

“You should take the opportunity to make someone useful and hopefully provide them with an opportunity for education.”

Nurul and Tian have both spent time in either lock-up or jails after being detained for political-motivated demonstrations and allegedly seditious remarks against the former BN government.

In light of the death of a Bentong Prison inmate due to a lack of medical attention last week, PKR women's wing vice-chief Sivamalar Genapathy has also urged the government to review the welfare of prisoners and prison staff.

-Mkini