Inmates in Seremban Prison are allowed to only converse in Malay or English when making telephone calls to their family members, revealed an ex-prisoner.

prisoner forced to speak malay 091209 The Chinese man, who had served a six-month sentence, had complained to DAP Bukit Kepayang assemblyperson Cha Kee Chin.

The ex-prisoner ( photo:left ) told a press conference yesterday that wardens would immediately terminate the phone conversation if the inmates conversed in their mother tongue.

When Cha checked with a prison official, the DAP rep was told that the regulation was introduced for security purposes.

The reason given is that there are no wardens who understood other languages and the calls have to be monitored.

However, Cha was not convinced.

Use a translator

He argued that the prison authorities could always record the conversation and later employ a translator to check the contents.

Cha also told Malaysiakini that several Chinese and Indian prisoners had complained to him.

He also read an open letter from a Chinese prisoner who is still serving his jail term, who claimed that the regulation was 'tailored to discriminate' non-Malay prisoners.

Cha stressed that communicating in mother tongue language is a right guaranteed in the federal constitution even for prisoners.

"This regulation violates human rights. Banning prisoners from communicating with family members in their own language is unreasonable," he said.

The DAP rep also plans to lodge a formal complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) regarding this issue.