It is a criminal offence for anyone to sign statements that are untrue before a commissioner for oaths. Are there instances where people are compelled to make false statements? The answer is “yes”.
When statements are declared by ISA detainees or former detainees before a commissioner for oaths, we should treat them with absolute scepticism. In fact, such statements should instantly be disbelieved and the person/s who ordered them to be made should be condemned. Ministers who thought that by extracting these statements and publicising them would justify their arrests and detention should be embarrassed.
On 21 May 1987, 16 people were arrested and detained without trial under the ISA. The following month, on 20 June 1987, another six persons were arrested and detained. They were alleged to have acted in a “manner prejudicial to the security of Singapore” using “communist united front tactics”. This alleged security operation was codenamed “Operation Spectrum.”
In the course of the year, the detainees were released in “trainloads” except for Vincent Cheng Kim Chuan who continued to be imprisoned till June 1990.
The government did not make life easy for those released. Some lost their jobs while others had difficulty returning to their professions. Added to all these problems, the government repeatedly referred to them as Marxist conspirators. Angry and unhappy over all those allegations, nine former detainees decided to issue a joint statement denying the government’s allegations against them and confirming ill treatment while in detention.
On 18 April 1988, the joint statement was released. The following day, eight of those who signed the statement were rearrested. The ninth (Tang Fong Har) was in the United Kingdom and did not return to Singapore. She became another political exile from this rich island state. In addition to the eight rearrested, their lawyer, Patrick Seong Kwok Kei was also arrested. His “crime” was for passing information to the foreign press.
In reading these statutory declarations, the reader must bear in mind that nine of those who made the declarations were in prison. Detention under the ISA is indefinite. Under such circumstances, several of them who were physically assaulted did not deny or state the occurrence of such assaults. They may thus be assumed to have suffered physical assaults. There were also detainees who were in fact beaten up but were somehow coerced or persuaded to state that they were not physically tortured and were well treated.
For those who did not sign the joint statement, we can assume that they too feared being rearrested. In the case of Chew Kheng Chuan who helped draft the joint statement but was not arrested till a few days later, he was compelled to declare that he was not physically assaulted even though he was. Years later, he publicly confirmed in the film “1987 – Untracing the Conspiracy” directed by Jason Soo that he was severely beaten up while in detention. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBJqJroWt3E.
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