By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary- General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Sunday,2 19.6.1983:
Home Affairs Ministry probe into allegation of torture at Tampin Drug Rehabilitation Centre welcomed
I welcome the prompt action by Ministry of Home Affairs to investigate into the allegation by an electrical shop- assistant, Ng Yong Sin, 18 from Malacca that he was tortured while at theTampin Drug Rehabilitation Centre for a urine test, which proved that he was not a drug addict.
However, I take the strongest exception to the remark by all a Home Affairs Ministry source that “pending the report, we hope the matter will not be exploited as a political issue by any quarter.” This remark is most uncalled for, for I had made public the ordeal suffered by Ng Yong Sin, the slapping, first punches on his chest, kicks and water- torture, not to exploit the matter ‘politically’, but to bring the culprit to book and to put an end to such breaches of the law by ‘upholders and enforcers of the law’.
I had in fact written to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs, Datuk Musa Hitam, on Ng Yong Sin’s a case yesterday. My letter to Datuk Musa reads:
“Datuk Musa Hitam, 18.6.1983
Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister for Home Affairs,
Malaysia.
YAB Datuk,
Tamping Drug Rehabilitation Center- Guard brutalities and
ill- treatment
__________________________________________
Firstly, I wish to congratulate you and the police force for the largest single seizure to date of 75.13 kilogram of heroin in Kuala Lumpur last month. You can be assured of full DAP support in the battle against drugs, which threaten the entire fabric of Malaysian society.
I am writing to draw your attention to one aspect of the anti-drug campaign to ensure that public support for the campaign would not be undermined because of certain black sheep in the Government services.
I refer to the case of Ng Yong Sin, 18, I/C A0135073 of Malacca, electrical shop assistant, who after depositing some $5,000 of cash on behalf of this employer in Southern Bank, Malacca, on 14th June 1983 at about 10.30a.m., was without cause or reason, taken by two policemen to the Malacca Police Station and then sent to the Tampin Drug Rehabilitation Centre for urine test as to whether he is a drug addict. The police refused the offer of Ng’s employer to bail him out, but assured Ng’s employer that Ng would not be assaulted at the Centre.
On arrival at the Tampin Drug Rehabilitation Centre, Ng was pulled by the hair by a guard, slapped in the face, made to suffer indignities and humiliation by being forced to ‘frog- jump’ and ‘duck- walk’ at the Centre, assaulted on the chest over 20 times, given the ‘water treatment’ by being immersed in water for half an hour on the afternoon on 14th and for about an hour from 6a.m. on 15th morning, where he was forced to drink a lot of water when his head was repeatedly pushed into the water, after which he was punched and kicked in the stomach many times.
Ng had his urine taken for test shortly after his arrival at the Centre at about 1.30 p.m., on 14th June, but he was told that the result would be known only the next day. Ng was released on 15th June about mid-day when the urine test proved negative.
I urge you to cause a through inquiry to be held into this matter, for it would do the anti- drug campaign no good for sadists and perverts to run wild in Drug Rehabilitation Centres. Furthermore, why couldn’t the urine test result be known immediately after, to spare who ever is spent to the Centre the indignity, let alone the humiliations and sufferings of brutalities, of being falsely accused of being a drug addict. Ng had already lodged a police report.