FAC News - Tuesday, August 27, 2002 2:38 PM

About the book "All in the Game"

On the afternoon of April 10, 2001, three opposition leaders and Anwar Ibrahim allies - Ezam Mohd Noor, Tian Chua and Saari Sungib - were arrested under Malaysia's dreaded Internal Security Act. They are all members of the National Justice Party, the party led by Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Anwar Ibrahim’s wife. Also arrested that same day was a political activist, Hishamuddin Rais. The following day, Raja Petra Kamarudin, the Director of the International Free Anwar Campaign, was picked up - whisked from his car along a busy highway during the morning rush hour.

This was just the start. By the time the police dragnet tightened, ten in all were detained.

The police justified their arrests by declaring that the ten were a threat to national security. The police claimed they had evidence that the ten had conspired to bring in guns, bombs and grenade launchers and had intended to create chaos on the streets of Malaysia. The following day, during a press conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad contradicted this police story. When asked why the police had arrested the ten under the ISA and why were they not brought to court and charged for the crimes they were alleged to have committed, he said the reason was that there was not enough evidence to charge them in court.

Four were eventually released – two by the court – and six are now languishing in the Kamunting Detention Camp for an indefinite period of time. When they will be released is unknown for they can be detained for as long as it pleases the government. Since then, another ten have been arrested - perceived threats to national security - and it is anticipated there are more arrests to come.

The ISA gives the government wide powers to arrest and detain a person without trial for as long as the government considers necessary. And a person can also be arrested under the ISA if he is suspected of intending to commit a crime – though no actual crime may have been committed yet.

The ISA was formulated in 1960 - three years after Malaysia gained independence from Britain - to combat the Communist Terrorists that had been waging war for more than a decade. Today, there are no longer any Communist Terrorists in Malaysia. Years back the Malayan Communist Party had signed a peace treaty with the Malaysian government to officially end the “war” in Malaysia. The truth is, the war had already ended a generation before this and Malaysia had not seen a single bombing or assassination for some time. The treaty just made official what was reality.

However, long after the bombings and killings had ended, and long after the peace treaty had been signed, the ISA, the law that was created to combat Communist terrorism, is still in use. But the ISA is no longer used against Communist terrorists. The ISA is no longer used against bombers and assassins. And the ISA is no longer used against those who are a threat to the nation’s security. The ISA is now used against anyone who opposes the government. It is estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 people have so far been arrested under the ISA. Only the security apparatus knows the real figure for it is a state secret.

The police can detain a person under the ISA for 60 days before it decides whether to release them or send them to the Kamunting Detention Centre. The first 30 days of this detention is to extract a confession from the detainee. The balance of this period is used to show the detainee the error of his ways and get him to “turn over”. If the police are convinced the detainee has repented and no longer opposes the government, he is sent home. If not, his detention is extended.

The ten arrested in April were alleged to be planning to bring in bombs and weapons to start chaos in Malaysia. They were arrested supposedly to nip this plan in the bud. But the interrogation of the ten, which lasted nearly two months, never touched on this allegation at all. Instead, they were asked about personal and party matters – and much of the interrogation centered on sex.

Not many books have been written about detention and interrogation under the ISA. The few that have been written by former detainees were published many years after their release and long after those involved had either left office or died. For the first time, a book on the experiences of the ISA detainees has been written while they are still under detention.

This book, "All in the Game", reveals what interrogation under ISA is all about. It reveals what one is subjected to when detained and interrogated under the ISA. It reveals that the ISA is not about preventing a crime, but a means to extract information and “turn over” a person.