The fight goes on

They never had their day in court. And even after half a century, they continue to press for a court trial to prove their innocence.

I’m talking about the 133 men and women hauled up by the ISA dragnet 51 years ago in Singapore in a blitz code named Operations Coldstore.

Some have passed on. But one prominent name among the detainees has come up with a plan. In fact, the plan had been hatched for quite some time already based on this “logic”, ie since the authorities had never or did not want to charge them in court, the detainees ought to take the authorities to court instead.

He is Said Zahari, a well-known former journalist who led the famous Utusan Melayu strike in 1961 in a gallant effort to prevent Umno from putting the then-independent Utusan newspaper under its political control.

Now, 35 years after his release from 17 years of ISA detention (that adds up to more than six thousand days), Said Zahari is set to take legal action on the British government for putting him behind bars and subpoena Lee Kuan Yew who was then chief minister of Singapore.

“It is not about revenge or wanting to make money or seeking financial compensation and what not,” said Said or Pak Said as he is fondly known, going on to say, “This is about justice. To right the wrongs and the injustice inflicted on me, my fellow detainees and our families.”

Obviously, Pak Said remained steadfast in saying he and his friends were never guilty of any wrongdoing and that there were absolutely no grounds for their detention, maintaining over and over again that “none of us was put on trial and convicted of communist subversion” – their alleged “crime”.

A draft of his complaint – 12 pages in all – had been ready for a while but was never filed. But now Pak Said is geared to take the step forward.

The “statement of fact“ in the draft among others states that he was arrested “in Operation Coldstore under the Internal Security Act on February 2, 1963 in Singapore by the British colonial government, aided by the chief minister of the internal self government of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew”.

At the time of his arrest, Pak Said was 34 years old. A day before his detention, he was elected president of the restructured Parti Rakyat Singapura which was to give the Malays their own political direction in facing future development in Singapore.

Operation Coldstore saw the detention of opposition politicians, trade unionists, community leaders, academics as well as student leaders. And to Pak Said, his arrest has always been political.

“The fact that Lee Kuan Yew was keen to arrest other political rivals such as Ong Eng Guan from the United Peoples Party and elected members of the Malayan parliament such as Ahmad Boestamam and Lim Kean Siew reveals that I was a political threat and not a pro-communist, a subversive or security threat as alleged and justifying arrest under the Internal Security Act,” said Pak Said in the draft compliant.

The document also includes detailed rebuttals to the charges hurled at him.

With the draft ready, Pak Said is seeking assistance from friends to assemble a legal team and get the resources to pursue the matter.

Clearly, there’s still fire in him despite his 86 years of age.

Which brings me to something Pak Said wrote in an article for a book published last year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Operations Coldstore.

In the last paragraphs of the piece, Pak Said wrote about the time when he met up with old friend A.M. Azahari, the political leader famous for the failed Brunei Revolt of December 1962.

Both were recovering from strokes when they met up in Bogor Indonesia where Azahari was living in exile, sometime in the 1990s.

Pak Said wrote that Azahari hugged him and said, “Bung Said, you’re still alive after 17 years in Lee Kuan Yew’s prison.”

To which Pak Said replied: “How could I die, the fight is not over.” Both men laughed long and loud. – September 17, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.