[This constitutes the Epilogue of the book “Fragments From Kamunting”, written in September 1990.]
On the 6th October 1988, as a result of Joshua Jamaluddin’s application for a writ of “habeas corpus”, the High Court declared that it was illegal to detain a person under the ISA for his faith. By 15th December 1988, all five Christians who were arrested on the same charge of “attempting to christianise the Malays” had been released. The Government appealed against Joshua’s release, but it was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 24th February 1989.
Following that, on 10th March 1989, the restrictions that had been imposed upon us were lifted. I was informed about it by the police through the telephone three days later and it was another two days before I received a copy of the order. I immediately called up Bukit Aman to protest against their delay in informing me of the lifting of those conditions. I also demanded a letter of apology from the Inspector General of Police and the Home Affairs Minister for illegally detaining me.
“Sorry-lah Doc. When the order comes for us to arrest, we arrest. When the order comes for us to release, we release. You will have to seek other channels for a letter of apology.” This was the reply from the senior police officer at the other end of the line.
Although I was now legally a free man, the trauma of detention continued to haunt me and the family.
While under police restrictions, I had to write in for permission to take the family out of the district for a holiday. I had also to inform the police when we moved house. The landlady of the house we were renting “got the scare” when I was arrested and wanted us out. On my release, we quickly looked for another house.
When we moved into our new home, a carpenter bird in the rubber estate across the road sounded out its, “Tutt, tutt, tutt, tutt, ….,” as though in jest. Happily, it did not continue for too many nights.
My children dreaded it every time we got into the car to go somewhere. The extremely taxing experiences of visiting me nearly every week during the period of my incarceration has had its effect upon them.
I have always taught my children not to fear the police but to seek their help when needed because “they are our friends”. After what I have gone through in the hands of the police, I could no longer say the same thing to my children. It just would not sound convincing.
For a long while after my release, the three older children would begin their prayers during family worship every night by saying, “Thank you Lord Jesus that Papa is home!”
My wife bore the full brunt of family as well as other responsibilities bravely. Of her, the truth of Proverbs 14:10 speaks appropriately:
“The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy.”
For myself, the real “lions’ den” was not in the isolated confinement of the police remand centre, not in the confrontation with the interrogating officers, nor was it in the rehabilitation camp at Kamunting. It was right in my heart immediately after the restrictions had been lifted off me. I had to struggle with bitterness, resentment and thoughts of revenge against the authorities. If not for the grace of God in Jesus Christ, I would have been swallowed up by these foes in the invisible realm.
It is now two years since I was released. I sit back and muse over the events that had occurred. Those events are still fresh in my mind. Of the five Christians who were detained, two are abroad and another is considering emigration. My children have grown. Another son has been added to the family, who knows nothing of what his brothers had gone through. My wife has grown. I have grown. What more can I say? Memories of the past cannot be wiped away. But I can make the words of the apostle Paul my own:
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
The day will come when it is revealed that all that happens on this earth goes to fulfil the eternal purpose of the true and living God. He it was who created the heavens and the earth. He it is who sustains and rules the universe He has created. He it will be who receive praise and honour and glory for ever and ever. It will then be seen that the October 1987 event is just one of a multitude of events that occurred by the will of God, which fulfilled His purpose, and which redounded to His glory. Evil men may do their worst, but they cannot frustrate the work of God. Indeed, it is written “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Join me then, in praise to our Maker:
“I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath;
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler powers;
My days of praise shall ne’er be past,
While life, and thought, and being last,
Or immortality endures.”
(Isaac Watts 1674-1748)
~~~~~