When Tian Chua was arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and held under solitary confinement in a secret police cell, he was told by his captors, "From now on you will answer only to this number - XXXXXX."

This is one of the many methods employed to strip ISA detainees from any semblance of humanity.

Others include sleep depravation, the forced cutting of one's hair, desecration of items of one's religious belief and the all-time favourite (said to be in every international police-military manual on how to deal with political prisoners) sex.

This ranges from threatening to rape one's spouse and children, forcing a detainee to simulate sexual acts and attempting to induce sexual arousal not unlike what G.I. Jills did in the Abu Ghraib Prison.

It doesn't matter if one is an ustaz from Kota Bahru, a respected Chinese educationist, or a PhD holder. The standard procedure is - whatever means necessary to 'break' the detainee. In Malaysia, the police proudly call this 'turning over'.