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On Jan 13, 1974, 15 days after Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees in the Batu Gajah detention camp started their hunger strike, detainees in the Kamunting camp joined in.

There were 139 women and men held separately in the Kamunting detention camp at the time. In one voice, they decided to protest the atrocities committed against their fellow detainees in Batu Gajah (see Part 1).

A memorandum was handed to the Kamunting detention camp authority in advance to make it clear that they would stage a hunger strike in support of their counterparts in Batu Gajah.

As though the security of the authorities were threatened by the peaceful and self-inflicted protest, the FRU (Federal Reserve Unit) was sent in to the camp to deal with the hunger strikers.

The peaceful protest was immediately besieged by an atmosphere of tension and terror with the ominous presence of the FRU.

In their typical high-handed and inhumane manner, the authorities pounced on their preys ruthlessly. The hunger strikers were physically assaulted and mentally tortured.

The detainees were denied family visits and reading materials. Indeed, they underwent a similar fate to that of their colleagues in Batu Gajah.

Frenzied attack

A few days later, all the men were transferred to the Batu Gajah camp to be kept in solitary confinement. On arriving there, the hunger strikers were ordered to walk one by one into the camp.

They were made to pass through a pathway with the FRU on one side and camp wardens at the other.

The early arrivals, mostly old and weak, were a little lucky for there was not much beating. Nevertheless, they were barked, growled and snarled at.

The later arrivals were kicked with police boots and struck with batons.

The most unfortunate were the ones who arrived last. They were not spared even as they attempted to pick up their belongings which fell while fleeing their tormentors.

The FRU personnel also lurked along the staircase and corners. They pounced on their unwary victims mercilessly with their boots and truncheons. The unkind and horrifying reception had gravely injured many.

Despite having battered the hunger strikers severely, the FRU had no qualms about further thrashing them when the strikers took their bath that afternoon.

The FRU had even gone to the individual cells to order the strikers to take off their clothes and started pounding on them.

Savage beatings

In the ensuing days, they were continuously subjected to savage beatings while bathing and in their cells. To humiliate the hunger strikers, they were forced to strip before walking into the bathrooms.

As a consequence of the beatings, several were critically injured. Among them were Goh Seow Pheng and Teoh Sam Poh; Labour Party members from Penang and Kedah respectively.

Lim Joo, a trade unionist and Parti Rakyat member, suffered from internal bleeding. This was manifested in the blood coming out with his excrement for days.

Lest the barbarism should be disclosed to the outside world due to the many injured who were in dire need of medical treatment, the doctors and nurses were called in instead.

While treating their patients, the doctors and nurses shook their heads in disbelief at the injuries their patients had sustained.

The women back in the Kamunting camp were not spared either and the authorities were by no means any kinder or humane towards them.

Similar tactics were employed to coerce them into succumbing to the authorities. Yet, the women were as unwavering and determined as the men in their struggle against inhumanity.

The utter savagery was further felt in the detention camps by the destruction of flowers, vegetables and fruit trees cultivated by the detainees. The plants were slashed, fell and uprooted.

'Hard-headedness'

As a matter of principle, the political detainees objected to being handcuffed while being taken to the hospital. The then IGP (Inspector General of Police) had himself agreed with this but more often than not the authorities breached the agreement.

On Jan 15, 1974, six hunger strikers were hospitalised but handcuffed to their beds. As a protest they refused to take any medicine or receive treatment. They were discharged on that night itself.

No sooner had they returned to the camp, they were savagely assaulted for 'hard-headedness'. They had the sides of their chests injured by the police batons despite the detainees having gone on a hunger strike for 18 days.

Among them were Ho Nam Swee, a trade unionist from Pahang and R Gunaratham, a Labour Party member from Sentul, Kuala Lumpur.

As the news of the hunger strike came to the knowledge of the detainees' families, they were overwhelmed with fear and worry for the lives of their loved ones.

As days went by, they grew more and more anxious. In the end, the distraught family members, mostly mothers and wives, pulled themselves together to organise actions in support of their loved ones. A nationwide committee of the political detainees' family members was set up and run by the women.

The mothers and wives had overcome their fear for the police and 'white terror'; a term referred to the brutal repression. They shouldered all the responsibilities to fight hand-in-hand with their loved ones against inhumanity inside the detention camps.

When mothers and wives sought to visit their loved ones, they were rudely obstructed from entering the camps. They sought in vain, through their lawyers, to meet up with the home affairs minister.

They went to the Parliament several times to appeal to its members. They sent a memorandum to the prime minister. They organised press conferences and issued press statements. They sent appeal letters to the secretary-general of the United Nations and to many organisations within and outside the country.

The women had also taken to the streets to protest against inhumanity. They organised peaceful demonstrations and fought brutal repression by the police.

The family members gathered at Jalan Parliament to seek a meeting with the Home Affairs Minister on Jan 16. Instead, the police was sent to suppress them. A scuffle between the police and the women broke out.

The young and old women put up a brave tussle with the police. The police had forcefully hauled them into the Black Maria. They were charged and fined for participating in the 'illegal assembly'. Yet, the women were adamant to fight on.

On Jan 19, as Chinese New Year approached, a Chinese minister from the SUPP (Sarawak United People's Party) was called in to pacify and sweet talk the hunger strikers into submission but it fell short of any concrete settlement.

Come Chinese New Year, there was still no sign of settlement. As days went by, the lives of the hunger strikers were ever more endangered. Yet, the authorities had still not taken any move to settle the hunger strike amicably.

For the hunger strikers, they would not compromise until the ending the violence perpetrated against them, the restoration of all their rights and improvements made to the conditions and treatment in the detention camps.

The family members were distressingly apprehensive and ever more anguished with the prospect of losing their loved ones. Nonetheless, they vowed to fight by their side till the matter was over and done with.

[To be continued]

ANG HIOK GAI is the deputy secretary-general of Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM). This article was written based on published memoirs of former ISA detainees and unpublished manuscripts by other ex-detainees passed on to the author. The photos are taken from Lawan Tetap Lawan: Kisah Perjuangan Rakyat Menuntut Keadilan , courtesy of Strategic Info Research Development.