South China Morning Post - 23 August 2001

Activist tells of life behind bars as a number

A political activist who was accused of plotting the violent overthrow of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and jailed under the feared Internal Security Act has told of his time behind bars.

In a book published on Sunday entitled From Prince To Prisoner, Raja Petra Kamarudin, 49, who ran the FreeAnwar Web site, describes his arrest, detention and weeks of interrogation.

He tells how he was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to an interrogation cell, where each day he was repeatedly accused of seeking to overthrow the Government.

"My eight by nine feet windowless concrete cell doubles as my sleeping quarters. The guard leads me out of my cell block and my journey to an unknown destination begins" he says in the book. "In the cell you have no name, just a number. Mine was 42. I am not Raja Petra but just the 'arrested person'. This is the first thing you lose after your freedom, your identity."

Each day he had to greet his inquisitors in Malay, state his number and speak only when spoken to. In the book, Raja Petra details how he broke down on the first day of his encounter with three interrogators.

"The tears flow down my cheeks and I hide my face in shame. I refuse to let them see me break down. I want to be strong. I want to fight them. A fighter does not cry. But I am now crying. I am no fighter. I am weak," he writes.

"It's only the first day of interrogation and already I have broken down," he writs in his 114-page, self-published book.

His wife, Morina Lee Abdullah, said: "We want to tell everything - all our experiences. Raja is a strong person now." The pair have been together for 28 years.

Raja Petra's nightmare began on April 11 when police stopped his car, pounded on the window and shouted: "You are under arrest." He was then forced to spend 52 days in detention, 44 of them without outside contact, and was released on June 2.

The same day, police detained several others, all under the Act. They were also supporters of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is serving a 15-year jail term for sodomy and corruption, charges he said were fabricated to keep him from challenging Dr Mahathir.

Like Raja Petra, all are also members of the National Justice Party headed by Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Ismail.

Two were ordered to be released by a court, while six others have been detained in a political camp for two years. Their appeal before the Federal Court is pending.

Opposition parties and rights groups are pressing for Parliament to repeal all laws restricting individual liberty, including the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

A total of 4,190 people have been detained under the Act since it was passed in 1960 to battle a communist insurgency. About 70 people being held under the law have so far been jailed for two to four years, officials say.