It disturbs me that Anwar Ibrahim seem to have not raised issues about prison conditions and matters concerning OTHER prisoners.
All we have heard from him and his party are about Anwar's own situation and plight. A wife, daughter and family members may be expected to just be bothered about their loved ones - but not if is a political party and its leadership.
Of course, Anwar has the right to raise concerns about his own condition, but his failure to highlight the plight of any other prisoner is disturbing - a possible indication of lack of concern - OR maybe all is well and good in the Malaysian prisons save for how Anwar himself is being treated?
Has anyone seen Anwar raise any concern about any other prisoner, or about the other prisoners generally?
Anwar may not now be a people's representative('wakil rakyat'), who serves his constituency - but, whilst in prison, he may want to be the 'wakil rakyat' for those in prison and their families/friends - and help to improve prison conditions and prisoner rights. I am sure that many families who have their loved one's in prison would be most grateful for this.
Anwar and his party do have the attention of the media, and so this is an opportunity not to be missed...to bring about serious improvement in our prisons. Highlighting conditions in detention centres can bring about changes...
126 groups:- Death of 2 Burmese Indicative of State of Detention Places in Malaysia - Denial of Healthcare Is a Violation of Right to Life
23 Groups Joint Statement : Leptospirosis Causes Death Of Another 6 Burmese In Detention In Malaysia - Denial Of Healthcare....
SUHAKAM reiterates 1,300 dead in 6 years in detention places - "...medical care overiding reason..."
It certainly would improve public perception that Anwar and his party seem to be ONLY concerned about Anwar?
We have many 'death in custody' that is also happening in Malaysian prisons, and other detention centres - not just only in police custody...so prison reform is a serious concern for Malaysia.
What about the provision of healthcare of other prisoners? Do they also have access to doctors - to MRI's, etc > sadly, it looks like Anwar and PKR seem not to be so bothered about others save their own leader Anwar?
I may be wrong about the concerns of Anwar and PKR - please do correct my ignorance by posting comments in this post highlighting situations(media reports/reports/etc) where Anwar (or PKR) did indeed raise issues about prisoner treatment and prison conditions?
The prisoners may all be convicted criminals - but they are still human persons and deserve to be treated with dignity...
On the other hand, Uthayakumar behaved very differently recently even filing a suit with the hope that this will lead to a Royal Commission of Inquiry... (see Malaysiakini report dated 2/10/2015 below). Uthayakumar also did raise a lot about his own personal medical condition and treatment but he has gone further by looking at also matters for the general good of other prisoners..
One wonders also whether Anwar is being treated the same(or differently) as other prisoners
I wonder whether he has been isolated from all other prisoners and treated differently - this would be a violation of the Federal Constitution that guarantees equal treatment ...
I wonder about the photo in the 29th September Malaysiakini report - I wonder how come Anwar is not wearing prison clothes...? Maybe, it is an old photo of when he was being taken to court for a hearing...
Anwar may be former Deputy Prime Minister, the former Opposition leader...but at the moment for all intents and purposes he is a convicted person serving his sentence in prison... We have all condemned preferential treatments to VIP('Very Important Persons) before...and so, we need to be consistent here...
Anwar whisked away from HKL without treatment, claim lawyers
Anwar Ibrahim's lawyers claim the former opposition leader was
abruptly taken back to the Sungai Buloh prison from Hospital Kuala
Lumpur without undergoing treatment.
"Yesterday morning, Anwar was suddenly taken out from consultation at HKL.
"Subsequently,
Anwar was rushed back to prison before 12pm, with no treatment
whatsoever," said lawyers N Surendran and Latheefa Koya in a
joint-statement today.
The lawyers said this was despite Anwar
requiring urgent medical attention due to his chronic shoulder injury
and other conditions.
Health Ministry director-general Noor Hisham
Abdullah yesterday stressed that some 17 clinical consultants were
already looking into Anwar's various conditions.
However, the
lawyers pointed out that Noor Hisham ignored the family's request to
replace the head of the medical team Dr S Jeyaindran who acted as a
prosecution witness against Anwar.
"The fact remains, despite all
the '17 experts' on the panel, Anwar has still not received treatment,
and remains in constant pain while his condition worsens daily.
"In
view of this situation, Anwar and the family can have no real
confidence in the medical management of Anwar's condition by the team
headed by Dr Jeyaindran," said the lawyers.
Surendran and Latheefa
added that despite Noor Hisham's assurances, the fact was that the
diagnosis and treatment for Anwar had been "unnecessarily and
unreasonably" delayed since February.
Anwar is serving a five-year
jail sentence for sodomy, a charge he claims is politically motivated
but the authorities insist otherwise.
Don’t politicise treatment
Meanwhile, Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen called for Anwar's medical treatment not to be politicised.
"The
government has a duty to ensure that international standards such as
the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the
Mandela Rules) which was recently revised in 2015 are complied with.
"Of
particular note is Rule 24 which requires that prisoners enjoy the same
standards of healthcare that are available in the community, and Rule
27 which requires that prisoners who need specialised treatment or
surgery shall be transferred to specialised institutions or to civil
hospitals," he said in a statement today.
Noting that Anwar had
yet to receive the needed medical treatment, Paulsen said the former
opposition leader was a prisoner of conscience and deserved better
treatment than what he is currently receiving.
"We therefore call
upon the authorities to provide Anwar with immediate medical treatment
to meet his specialised medical needs and to ensure that his health does
not deteriorate further," he said. - Malaysiakini, 29/9/2015,
Uthaya recounts horrors of a Malaysian prison
INTERVIEW P Uthayakumar showed
what is an end of a much worn toothbrush on his index finger and
demonstrated how to brush his teeth. It was brown, soiled, and the
bristles were almost gone.
“This is shared by almost five of the
prisoners in a cell - usually there are more. When I asked the wardens,
they said it is because there is no budget for toothbrushes,” said
Uthayakumar, who is bent on telling all about his imprisonment in Kajang
prison.
Uthayakumar was sentenced to prison for sedition, but little was he prepared for what was to come.
He had served time under the now defunct Internal Security Act and thought it might be similar.
Now, after surviving his term in Kajang prison, he said it is something he would not even wish upon his worst enemy.
While in prison itself, Uthayakumar had written many complaints of his prison conditions in smuggled letters through his wife and lawyers.
The
Hindraf leader was sentenced to 30 months’ jail by the Kuala Lumpur
High Court on June 5, 2013, after accusing Putrajaya of genocide against
ethnic Indians.
The Court of Appeal on Sept 17 upheld Uthayakumar’s sentence but commuted the punishment from 30 months to 24 months. He was released last Oct 3.
Uthayakumar,
a lawyer famed for having galvanised the Hindraf movement which brought
tens of thousands of Indian Malaysians to a rally in 2007 demanding for their rights, said it was all he could do to keep his sanity while in prison.
He
said the one thing that he did not leave behind when he entered prison
was his activism - the only difference being that he spoke up for all
races in prison, not only for Indian Malaysians, as he was wont to do
outside.
“In prison, all are treated equally - equally badly. There’s really 1Malaysia in prison. There is equality for all.
“In
prison, it doesn’t matter, you get equal treatment and you get the same
food,” said the activist in an interview with Malaysiakini.
He
admitted that this is contrary to deaths in police custody as well as
deaths by police shooting, in which he had all the while claimed victims
were mostly Indian Malaysians.
He explained that even during roll calls, which was several times a day and called ‘muster’, everybody got punished equally.
“There are no special privileges for anybody. And the natural reaction is that we are all in it together.”
‘Doctor checks from six feet away’
Uthayakumar
said much is needed to better the conditions of the Kajang prison for
men, especially when it came to medical care.
“What I feared most while in prison was that I would fall ill.”
His eyes glistened with tears when he spoke about the predicament of a fellow inmate.
‘The
inmate had hepatitis C but the prison wardens said there was nothing
wrong with him. One night, I saw him sitting on his bed, with a helpless
look on his face.
“The next morning, he died, and I saw a prison officer erasing his name from the white board.
“I told the prisoner next to me, with that erasing, all the records of him having died in prison, are gone,’ he said.
Uthayakumar said for every ailment, the medication is the ‘KK’ pills - plain paracetamol.
“And
the doctor checks you from six feet away, without touching you,” said
Uthayakumar, who said he was usually appointed the spokesperson by his
fellow inmates to speak to the wardens.
He said he had to be
very careful and be at his utmost politeness while choosing the least
strict of the wardens to ask for sickly fellow inmates to be given
medical care.
He said his fellow inmates, before he left, lamented that in his absence, no one would speak up for them now.
Uthayakumar,
however, said that he survived being sardine-packed in cells by keeping
a journal, which at times was checked upon. They even took away his
pencils and then he was moved on from one block to another.
Despite the ordeal, he said other prisoners had it worse.
He
claimed that prisoners were persecuted on a daily basis and no one
could answer the wardens, who struck fear with their violence and
shouts.
He said inmates were treated like “mere slaves”; being beaten up, shouted at and ill-treated.
Despite that, the inmates stuck together for fear of the wardens.
He
related how he witnessed inmates of different races helping each other -
a Malay helping out a Chinese, or even of a Malay inmate cleaning up a
paralysed Indian inmate every time the latter answered the call of
nature, to the extent of using his fingers to ease the bowels of the
latter.
The interview was jointly conducted by Zakiah Koya, Alyaa Azhar, Ahmad Fadli KC and Prasadh Michael - Malaysiakini, 23/10/2014
In prison, one dipper for all, says Uthaya
INTERVIEW During
his imprisonment, P Uthayakumar’s wife S Indra Devi had repeatedly
raised the issue of her husband being in unhygienic conditions.
Uthayakumar, who was sentenced to an initial 30 months under the Sedition Act in 2013, said that he had highlighted it because it was not his case alone - it happened to everyone.
Relating his experience with the ‘multipurpose dipper’ in Kajang prison, Uthayakumar said prisoners use the same dipper to wash their wounds and soak their underwear in.
The dipper refers to the “gayong” used to fill water to wash oneself with after using the toilet.
“When there is a shortage of food trays, wardens dump food into the dipper, from which inmates will eat from with their bare hands, even those with scabs on their hands.
Uthayakumar said once, he even saw a prisoner vomit in the dipper.
As for the food, Uthayakumar said the menu is tasteless. He calls his prison term diet as complete detoxification of the human body.
“It is the first time I heard of sup air (water soup). If there is oil traces on any of the food, it is considered to be such a treat. There is almost no oil, which explains why most inmates have very dry skin,” said Uthayakumar.
He said one can either accept the food or go hungry for the rest of the day.
'In the dark room, Malaysiakini saved me'
Due to his often “smuggled” and written complaints, he was placed in the ‘dark room’ thrice.
“I will tell you how to smuggle only when you are inside,” said Uthayakumar when asked how he did it.
Once, they put him in solitary confinement for repeatedly missing the roll call.
“I had to sleep on the cement floor, with the longest experience for 14 days. I was in solitary confinement with no pillow, no blanket and no toiletries. There is a small window which opens up to the corridor and when they off the light, it is pitch black. The door is of hard steel.
“Despite being a hardened activist, I felt helpless that I could not even save myself.
“I kept myself busy by having a routine in the dark room. I would walk in circles, at times a thousand circles. Then I would go to the small tap and wash myself. Then the food comes. Then I walk circles again in the cell. Once it went on for five days.”
However, on the sixth day, an officer pulled him outside the cell and told him that they had read his complaints which were published in Malaysiakini.
“At that moment I was thinking, if not for Malaysiakini it was during my worst times in prison, I was hitting rock-bottom…that in a way, Malaysiakini was my saviour.”
Uthayakumar has initiated contempt proceedings against those who were allegedly responsible for his conditions of imprisonment.
Yesterday: Uthaya recounts horrors of a Malaysian prison
The interview was jointly conducted by Zakiah Koya, Alyaa Azhar, Ahmad Fadli KC and Prasadh Michael - Malaysiakini, 23/10/2015
Uthayakumar, who was sentenced to an initial 30 months under the Sedition Act in 2013, said that he had highlighted it because it was not his case alone - it happened to everyone.
Relating his experience with the ‘multipurpose dipper’ in Kajang prison, Uthayakumar said prisoners use the same dipper to wash their wounds and soak their underwear in.
The dipper refers to the “gayong” used to fill water to wash oneself with after using the toilet.
“When there is a shortage of food trays, wardens dump food into the dipper, from which inmates will eat from with their bare hands, even those with scabs on their hands.
Uthayakumar said once, he even saw a prisoner vomit in the dipper.
As for the food, Uthayakumar said the menu is tasteless. He calls his prison term diet as complete detoxification of the human body.
“It is the first time I heard of sup air (water soup). If there is oil traces on any of the food, it is considered to be such a treat. There is almost no oil, which explains why most inmates have very dry skin,” said Uthayakumar.
He said one can either accept the food or go hungry for the rest of the day.
'In the dark room, Malaysiakini saved me'
Due to his often “smuggled” and written complaints, he was placed in the ‘dark room’ thrice.
“I will tell you how to smuggle only when you are inside,” said Uthayakumar when asked how he did it. “I had to sleep on the cement floor, with the longest experience for 14 days. I was in solitary confinement with no pillow, no blanket and no toiletries. There is a small window which opens up to the corridor and when they off the light, it is pitch black. The door is of hard steel.
“Despite being a hardened activist, I felt helpless that I could not even save myself.
“I kept myself busy by having a routine in the dark room. I would walk in circles, at times a thousand circles. Then I would go to the small tap and wash myself. Then the food comes. Then I walk circles again in the cell. Once it went on for five days.”
However, on the sixth day, an officer pulled him outside the cell and told him that they had read his complaints which were published in Malaysiakini.
“At that moment I was thinking, if not for Malaysiakini it was during my worst times in prison, I was hitting rock-bottom…that in a way, Malaysiakini was my saviour.”
Uthayakumar has initiated contempt proceedings against those who were allegedly responsible for his conditions of imprisonment.
Yesterday: Uthaya recounts horrors of a Malaysian prison
The interview was jointly conducted by Zakiah Koya, Alyaa Azhar, Ahmad Fadli KC and Prasadh Michael - Malaysiakini, 23/10/2015
In
his motion, he proposed the respondents to request the Yang di Pertuan
Agong to form the RCI, to be either headed by him or a human rights
lawyer to investigate complaints he had made and to improve conditions
of prisons nationwide.
He is also seeking a declaration that Muslims not be subjected to face the kiblat with the toilet in front of them in the cell.
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