TAIPING: After spending 40 years in jail, Jamil Arshad will forever cherish the date March 22. That is when he received a royal pardon from the Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.
The period behind bars made Jamil, 63, the longest-serving prisoner in the country.
He was finally able to return to his hometown in Kampung Guang, Keliwang, Sembawa, in Indonesia, this morning.
“When I was informed that I will be getting a royal pardon from Sultan Ibrahim, I almost didn’t believe it because I had been sentenced to life in prison.
“In 2012, there was a mass amnesty in Johor where the longest-serving prisoner at the time was serving 37 years, while I had done 29.
“I said in my heart, I wouldn’t stand a chance of getting home. I believed I was going to die in prison.
“All I could think of was what I would be bringing with me to the afterlife when I die. So, I focused all my attention on praying.
“When the prisons director informed me that I was going to get a pardon, I just didn’t know how to react.
“The prisons director showed me a picture of a man. He asked me: ‘Pak Jamil, can you sew a baju Melayu like this?
“I looked and said: ‘Yes, I can,'” he said as he was a skilled tailor in prison.
It was only after the director insisted that he take a second look at the picture that he recognised the person was his brother. It had been so long that he had forgotten.
Jamil said he went to his room and cried. “I could not believe the news,” he told Bernama when met at the Taiping prison yesterday.
Jamil said he felt grateful to be given an opportunity to spend the remaining days of his life in his village.
But deep down, it was hard for him to leave the prison that had helped him to turn around and be a useful member of society.
During his time in prison, Jamil became a skilled tailor and sewed thousands of baju Melayu and blazers for prison officers.
Jamil had also learned how to make rattan furniture when he was earlier at the Johor Bahru prison.
In his 40 years of celebrating Hari Raya in prison, Jamil had also led the congregation in prayers.
Jamil advised youngsters not to waste their youth and avoid doing bad deeds.
“When we’re young, we feel empowered when holding a gun, like the world is ours. I was not a good person even when I was in Indonesia. I was going in and out of prison.
“I was able to change my life in prison. I never missed the daily prayers.”
Taiping prison director Nazri Mohamad said Jamil was sent to the Johor Bahru prison in February 1983 after he was sentenced to life in prison and given six strokes of the cane under Section 5 of the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971 (Act 37) by the Johor Bahru sessions court.
He was transferred to the Taiping prison in 1986 to serve his sentence.
He soon gained the nickname “Jamil Hayat” (due to his life sentence). - FMT
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