by Teo Soh Lung
The leaders of Singapore are so absurd or shall I say cruel and vengeful? Why did they imprison writers, poets, and playwrights like Yeng Pway Ngon and Kuo Pao Kun and then honour them with the Cultural Medallion in later years? Was it to appease their conscience for the evils they had done?
Kuo Pao Kun, who passed away in 2002, was arrested and detained without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for four years in 1976. He was severely tortured for crimes he did not commit.
Released in 1980, his determination to carry on life as a playwright and theatre director was simply amazing. He succeeded without the assistance of the Government. Despite covert warnings from the security police in 1987 that if he carried on what he did, he would end up in jail again, he refused to yield.
Similarly, Yeng Pway Ngon, who died on 10 January, refused to give up his life as a writer after his release from prison.
Yeng Pway Ngon was arrested under the ISA in 1977. His crime was showing sympathy for his left wing friends who frequented his bookshop, Grassroots Book Room. When his friends were arrested under the ISA, he was also swept into prison.
The cruelty of the ISA regime is well-illustrated by the manner in which the ISD officers played with the lives of detainees. The boldness of ISD officers must have been attributed to the blessings given by the executive arm of the Government.
Under the ISA, a person can be detained and interrogated for 30 days without a detention order. Yeng Pway Ngon was taken out of prison for a short car ride just before the expiry of 30 days, and returned to prison for another round of interrogation which lasted another 30 days.
We do not know what thrill the ISD director, Lim Chye Heng, and his underlings derive from these cruel acts – releasing and re-detaining Yeng Pway Ngon, raising and dashing hope three times before he was finally released. He was imprisoned for four months without being served a detention order.
In the 1970s, this practice of releasing a prisoner just before the expiry of 30 days and then sending him to prison again for another 30 days was carried out on a number of prisoners.
By indulging in such a cruel practice, a detainee is not considered a prisoner under the ISA because no detention order was served on him. It is strange logic but this is how the Government keeps its record of ISA detainees.
Thus, even though Yeng Pway Ngon was detained for four months under the ISA, he was not classified as a ISA detainee by the Government. Only the unofficial source name him as a detainee.
The cruelty of the ISA regime has been exposed by many former ISA detainees. Singapore cannot boast that its leaders observe the rule of law as long as the ISA exists.
It is time our leaders recognise this and stop deceiving the world that Singapore respect the rule of law. The fact that our leaders are prepared to use the ISA against Yeng Pway Ngon and Kuo Pao Kun shows how deprave they are.
But despite their wrongful imprisonment, both Yeng Pway Ngon and Kuo Pao Kun have risen above their tormentors and translated their harrowing experiences into words for us.
With deepest respect, rest in peace, author and poet Yeng Pway Ngon.
The wake is held at Block 127 Bishan Street 12, Singapore today (12 Jan). The cortege leaves at 8.40am tomorrow (13 Jan) for Mandai Crematorium.
