FAC News - Tuesday, August 27, 2002 2:36 PM

Book Review - From Prince to Prisoner

(Within three weeks of Raja Petra’s release from ISA he wrote a book on his experience under detention. These are but just some excerpts from this book due out in July 2001)

It has been a nightmare for us ever since my husband’s detention and the nightmare goes on. To date, we have not been told when we can have our next visit or whether any more visits will be allowed.

It is a very lonely and frightening experience not knowing what the future holds for you. I pray that no one else should ever go through the ordeal that the families of the 10 detainees are going through. The only thing we can do is to pray for the 10 detainees’ early release and their wellbeing.

My religious teacher once told me that ‘in every good there is a bad, and in every bad there is a good’ but at this point of time I cannot see any good in the bad that is happening to my family.

Marina Raja Petra the first month of the detention

The police spent the next few days trying to get hold of tape recordings of my speeches in a desperate search for evidence of my seditious deed. After listening to the tape recordings of my speeches the police started changing their attitude towards me and also treated me differently. One of the police officers even admitted that they have failed to find any evidence in which to press charges against me.

Ezam Mohd Nor

For the past two days I have told my acquaintances here in California that I am upset because a friend was arrested in Malaysia. They asked, “why was he arrested?” and I said, because he led a candlelight vigil outside a police station, together with his wife and a few other friends -- and because there were more than four people, it was an illegal assembly.

They all said, “You're kidding!”  They cannot believe that such a country or such a law exists anywhere in the world in the 21st century -- and certainly not in Malaysia. Here in America, there is no concept of “sedition”. “Sedition” is a British colonialist-imperialist notion.  It is the mentality that no one has the right to criticize the King or his government, no matter what they do.

What others call sedition, we call freedom.  If the freedom to speak your mind, write and say what you want, criticize your Government, and work to achieve political change and replace one Government with another is sedition, then everyone in America is guilty of sedition, and proud of it!

John R. Malott, one-time United States Ambassador to Malaysia

"Are you Raja Petra?" ASP Oh demands confirmation with finger pointed at my face.

"Yes."

"We have reason to believe you are a threat to national security. We are arresting you under Section 73 (1) of the Internal Security Act."

I kiss my wife and daughter and follow the police officers to their car. They bundle me into the back seat, sandwiched between two burly officers. I am now in their charge.

I am presently in a state of shock. I need to get over my shock, plus also my fear, and then enter the phase, which is of anger. If possible, I must even try to force thoughts of revenge into my head. I vow not to feel afraid. So they have got me. So what? I can fight them. I will fight them. But how can I do this?

That’s it! That’s how I will fight this. I am now on a secret hunger strike. I will stop eating and drinking. I just had a mug of Nescafe three hours ago, but my last meal was last night. My mind is made up. I will allow myself to die. That will stump them for sure. As long as I am alive they can hold me for as long as they like. Once I die they will have to send my body home to my family.

My death will not only rob my captors of the pleasure of detaining me longer than a week. In the process I will also be able to punish them. How would they explain how I died? What are they going to tell the world when they send my body home to my family? They will have to send my body home. They cannot keep it forever. Maybe they can keep it for awhile but eventually they will still need to send it home.

This will be a political disaster for the government. The government has still not recovered from Anwar Ibrahim’s black eye. How will they ever recover from the bad publicity surrounding my death? This will hurt the government real bad. This is so exciting. At last I am able to do maximum damage to the government. Sacrificing my life is but a small price to pay for the advantage of hitting the government where it will hurt them most.

"You ask people to come out and demonstrate but you yourself are afraid to come out. What kind of a leader are you? You are not a leader! You have no balls! Coward!"

"People like you make me sick. I have no respect for people like you." He gestures with his hands to emphasize his disgust.

"Yes. That's right. And I am now reading your mind. I know what you are thinking. Do you want me to tell you what you are thinking?"

Actually I am not in the least interested whether he knows what I am thinking but I think it best not to tell him so. "I am curious," I lie.

"You are thinking of your wife. I know you love your wife very much. You are always with your wife. You are never separated from her. Now that you are in here alone and separated from her you are thinking of her. Right?"

I just nod without any eye contact.