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MHA ignores torture allegations; claims Fernandez was detained by Malaysia
December 25th, 2010 | Author: Contributions
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has released a baffling letter to the Straits Times Forum today in response to the damaging allegations made by ex-ISA detainee Michael Fernandez who filed a writ of summons against the PAP regime a few days ago.
In the writ which can be read online here, Mr Fernandez accused the Internal Security Department, Singapore Prison Authorities and the Ministry of Home Affairs of performing ‘acts of torture’ against him.
He claimed he was ‘manhandled’ on several instances such as being restrained on a chair with his hands handcuffed behind his back before being force-fed via thick tubes forced down his throat and being deprived of sleep by the act of deploying Gurkhas, who constantly opened the peep holes of his cell every 15 minutes to check on him.
In the letter written by MHA Deputy Director Yap Neng Jye, MHA did not confirm to deny the torture allegations made by Mr Fernandez and instead chose to deflect the blame of his detention to the Malaysian government.
“Mr Fernandez was detained by an order issued by the then Malaysian Minister of Interior Security and Minister of Home Affairs, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, under the Malaysian Internal Security Act for his involvement in the Communist United Front (CUF),” it said.
It is disingenuous of MHA to deflect the responsibility of Mr Fernandez’s detention to Malaysia. Though Mr Fernandez was detained by Malaysia in 1964, he continued to be detained without trial for another 8 years under the PAP regime when Singapore was booted unceremoniously out of Malaysia in 1965.
Recently declassified British archives revealed that the British colonial officers believed that the leftist movement in Singapore had no connection with the communist underground and that there was no evidence that they were organizing a violent campaign to frustrate Malaysia.
[Source: Fajar Generation]
Despite the new evidence, MHA continued to paint Mr Fernandez as a ‘communist’:
“Contrary to Mr Fernandez’s claims that he was merely a trade unionist championing workers’ rights, he was part of the CUF, which was an appendage of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), a violent underground organisation that waged a protracted insurgency for several decades to overthrow the constitutionally elected governments of Singapore and Malaysia.”
Even if Mr Fernandez is indeed a communist, there are absolutely no grounds for the PAP regime to employ such savage acts of torture on him which is a gross abuse of human rights.
Besides Mr Fernandez, other ex-ISA detainees such as Mr Francis Seow, Dr Lim Hock Siew and Dr Poh Soo Kai have spoken out against the inhumane conditions they were subjected to during their detention.
MHA’s silence on the torture claims can only reinforce public perception that there is some element of truth in them after all.
December 25th, 2010 | Author: Contributions
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has released a baffling letter to the Straits Times Forum today in response to the damaging allegations made by ex-ISA detainee Michael Fernandez who filed a writ of summons against the PAP regime a few days ago.
In the writ which can be read online here, Mr Fernandez accused the Internal Security Department, Singapore Prison Authorities and the Ministry of Home Affairs of performing ‘acts of torture’ against him.
He claimed he was ‘manhandled’ on several instances such as being restrained on a chair with his hands handcuffed behind his back before being force-fed via thick tubes forced down his throat and being deprived of sleep by the act of deploying Gurkhas, who constantly opened the peep holes of his cell every 15 minutes to check on him.
In the letter written by MHA Deputy Director Yap Neng Jye, MHA did not confirm to deny the torture allegations made by Mr Fernandez and instead chose to deflect the blame of his detention to the Malaysian government.
“Mr Fernandez was detained by an order issued by the then Malaysian Minister of Interior Security and Minister of Home Affairs, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, under the Malaysian Internal Security Act for his involvement in the Communist United Front (CUF),” it said.
It is disingenuous of MHA to deflect the responsibility of Mr Fernandez’s detention to Malaysia. Though Mr Fernandez was detained by Malaysia in 1964, he continued to be detained without trial for another 8 years under the PAP regime when Singapore was booted unceremoniously out of Malaysia in 1965.
Recently declassified British archives revealed that the British colonial officers believed that the leftist movement in Singapore had no connection with the communist underground and that there was no evidence that they were organizing a violent campaign to frustrate Malaysia.
[Source: Fajar Generation]
Despite the new evidence, MHA continued to paint Mr Fernandez as a ‘communist’:
“Contrary to Mr Fernandez’s claims that he was merely a trade unionist championing workers’ rights, he was part of the CUF, which was an appendage of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), a violent underground organisation that waged a protracted insurgency for several decades to overthrow the constitutionally elected governments of Singapore and Malaysia.”
Even if Mr Fernandez is indeed a communist, there are absolutely no grounds for the PAP regime to employ such savage acts of torture on him which is a gross abuse of human rights.
Besides Mr Fernandez, other ex-ISA detainees such as Mr Francis Seow, Dr Lim Hock Siew and Dr Poh Soo Kai have spoken out against the inhumane conditions they were subjected to during their detention.
MHA’s silence on the torture claims can only reinforce public perception that there is some element of truth in them after all.
