COMMENT | Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng were detained for two years, Kua Kia Soong for 445 days, and Chandra Muzaffar for 57 days.

Me, I have never spent a single night in a lock-up, so how on earth would I be able to comprehend or feel the pain and suffering the Operasi Lalang detainees went through? No, I possibly cannot.

But like many, I also feel for the 106 detainees and their families for the agonising ordeal they went through during the 1987 Ops Lalang, described as the most brutal assault on Malaysian civil society.

The least I should do is to sincerely empathise with them. Yes, I am truly sorry for their pain and suffering, even though I am not responsible for it.

Ask anyone who has been imprisoned for whatever reason and they will surely point to the long hours of torture, both physical and mental, as the most nightmarish part of prison life.

“Going without food or water for hours is not so bad; that’s still tolerable. But the continuous rounds of beatings and torture, particularly those intended to break you down mentally, is something else. That will deprive you of sleep and when you cannot sleep for two or three days, you will feel like a walking zombie. That is the time when you feel that life is not worth living anymore,” a former prisoner, a fellow Sarawakian, once related to me.

But my new found friend was not detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA). He went in for a criminal offence more than 40 years ago. He was barely out of his teens when he was involved in a robbery which went horribly wrong and was eventually found guilty of being an accomplice in a murder case. He served time for eight years – much longer than any of the 106 Ops Lalang detainees.

The horror stories told by some of the ISA detainees were somewhat similar. When you are in prison, the offence, whether criminal or otherwise, becomes immaterial. You lose your freedom totally. Your life changes completely, with twists and turns never experienced before. Your loved ones have to go through similar anguish and agony.

Just as I sympathise with the detainees, I also comforted my friend after hearing his story, telling him, “I am sorry for your pain”. And yes, even when I did not cause it and had nothing to do with it...