Press Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya, on Thursday, Nov.18:
Shock at the ‘indifference’ shown by the Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation centre authorities to the ‘reign of terror’ by inmates over inmates
The Acting Principal of the Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation Centre, Mr. S. P. Singam, when commenting on the allegations of an inmate who escaped from the centre because of the violence and the ‘reign of terror’ by inmates who organised themselves into three ‘illegal governments’ according to race, ‘MCA’ for Chinese inmates, ‘UMNO’ for Malay inmates, and ‘MIC’ for Indian inmates, said that the centre officials were aware that ragging was practiced by the inmates.
Mr. Singam said that they do not condone ‘ragging’ and added: “We stop them when we come across such activities but sometimes they do it behind our back”.
I am shocked by the ‘indifference’ and the ‘insensitivity’ shown by Mr. Singam. For what happened in the Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation Centre is not merely ‘ragging’, but a systematic ‘reign of terror’ perpetrated by inmates over inmates, ‘a government within a government’, where the inmates are completely defenceless against the ‘illegal government’ and could get no redress or help from the ‘legal government’ represented by Mr. Singam and his officials.
Inmates in the Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation Centre who run afoul of the three ‘illegal authorities’ in the centre are brutally assaulted by turns by other inmates at the directive of the ‘illegal authorities’ which self-styled themselves as ‘MCA’, ‘UMNO’ and ‘MIC’. They even have a ‘High Court’ to carry out mock trials before carrying out punishments of physical assaults and violence.
It was because Chow Yue Kum, 27, overheard on 15th Nov. that he was going to be sent to ‘High Court’ trial of the ‘illegal authorities’ in the Kuala Kubu Baru Rehabilitation Centre that night, that he panicked and escaped, for fear of his life. Chow Yue Kum ran away, not from the ‘legal authorities’ of the Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation Centre, but from the ‘illegal authorities’ at the centre, who to the inmates, are the real powers in the centre. This is because, as Chow Yue Kum told the press conference yesterday, the ‘illegal authorities’ of Taikos and Condore ranking-people would abuse drug centre officials in front of the new inmates to impress on them that the centre officials have no control over ‘MCA’, ‘UMNO’ and ‘MIC’.
Drug addicts are sent to the Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation Centre to become rehabilitated and start a new leaf of life. But at the Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation Centre, the inmates re in fact being trained by the ‘illegal authorities’ of ‘MCA’, ‘UMNO’ and ‘MIC’ to become hardened criminals, or they are beaten the daylight out of them, and forced to abscond for fear of their lives.
Could the Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation Centre reveal how many inmates had escaped, or tried to escape, in the last few months, and in the past?
What we face in Kuala Kubu Baru Drug Rehabilitation Centre is not ‘ragging’ which had gone beyond control, but a heinous and brutal system of violence perpetrated on the inmates by ‘illegal authorities’ which defy completely the presence of the ‘legal authorities’! What we have in the KKB Drug Rehabilitation Centre is virtually a complete breakdown of lawful authority, and its usurpation by thugs and gangsters in the guise of the three ‘illegal authorities’ of ‘UMNO’, ‘MCA’ and ‘MIC’.
Mr. Singam said that it was common for escapees to make, ‘sometimes even worse allegations. In Chow Yue Kum’s case, he escaped for fear of the ‘illegal authorities’, and knew he was wrong to escape, and saw me to arrange for him to be surrendered to the police. The ‘illegal regime of terror’ in KKB Drug Rehabilitation Centre must be exposed and broken or the centre is only one to turn out hardened criminals!