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Source:
www.mha.gov.sg |
Ministry of Home Affairs
Response to Misinformation in Statements Issued by Chee Soon Juan
on SDP Website (Dated 18 Dec 06) |
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Chee Soon Juan has issued a statement
on 18 Dec 06, titled ¡°What really happened in prison¡±, where he
has made paranoid claims suggesting that the food served to him in
prison had caused him ¡°acute nausea, dizziness and distortion of
(my) auditory senses¡± such that he found the sounds of his
¡°cell-mates urinating ¡unbearably loud¡±. |
Chee¡¯s Nausea and his Marked Tray |
Chee asserted that his suspicion was
heightened because he noticed that his food tray was marked. The
facts are simple ¨C it is normal Prisons procedure to record the
food consumption of inmates under close watch. |
This procedure applies not just to
Chee Soon Juan but to all such inmates. In this connection, the
food trays of Chee¡¯s associates, Yap Keng Ho and Ghandi Ambalam
were also marked to allow Prisons to monitor their food intake.
This was done following Yap¡¯s declaration that he was going on a
hunger strike. |
For Chee especially, the marking of
food trays should not be new as this procedure was applied to him
when he was in prison in Oct 2002 and again in Mar 2006. He had no
complaints then about the marking of his food tray. |
At no point in time did Chee raise
concern over his food tray with the Prisons authorities or with
the prison medical officer and nurses. |
Nevertheless, when the Prisons
authorities observed that Chee was refusing to eat his meals, the
Prisons authorities surmised that Chee may lay claim to being
suspicious over the marking of his food tray. |
To address this and assure him, Chee
was allowed to choose among unmarked trays from 2 Dec 06 but he
continued to persist in not eating. He also persisted in his
demand that he would only eat home-cooked meals prepared by his
wife. (Prisons policy, which applies to all inmates, does not
allow this.) |
In fact, Chee seemed to be paranoid
about the hospital¡¯s medical staff too when he was first admitted
to hospital. Chee refused to eat even the meals served by the
Changi General Hospital when he was initially referred to the
hospital for medical tests to verify his complaint of nausea and
to establish its cause. |
Chee claimed that he and his family
members have repeatedly asked for a complete set of his medical
report but have not received them. This is certainly untrue. |
Chee only gave his consent to the
authorities for his medical report to be released to his sister on
14 Dec 06. The medical report is being prepared by the medical
officer from Raffles Medical Group and should be ready for
collection in two weeks, subject to payment of a fee. |
The Alleged Sleep Deprivation and
Removal of His Books |
Chee also claimed that the Prisons
authorities used sleep deprivation tactics like leaving the lights
in the cell on through the night, and that his books were taken
away from him when he returned from the hospital to prison. |
Chee seems to have an exaggerated
sense of self-importance as he again imagines that these measures
are specially drawn up for his sake. |
Chee initially slept in a cell with
cell-mates, where the lights were turned off at night. Chee
however complained that he had problems sleeping and asked for
valium to help him sleep. He was given valium by the medical
officer and was observed to have slept well. |
On his return from Changi General
Hospital, Chee was placed in a cell equipped with CCTV. The lights
at such cells are kept switched on from 6 pm to 8 am the following
day for visibility to enable prison officers to monitor inmates
under close supervision, including those with suicidal tendencies
or who may cause self-inflicted injuries. |
Prison officers observed that Chee¡¯s
cell-mates slept without trouble. At his request, Chee was also
given valium and was observed to have rested at least 6 to 7 hours
each night. This was recorded by the CCTV camera. |
Chee complained that his books were
taken from him when he returned to prison from the hospital. Chee
brought a total of 32 books with him to prison, far more than any
other prisoner. These 32 books were allowed. |
When he was referred to the hospital,
Chee brought with him 7 books for his reading while in hospital.
On his return, these 7 books were required to be subjected to
security screening. This is a standard security procedure for all
items, books included, which are brought in from outside into the
prison. |
However, Chee again clearly expected
to be treated differently and exempted from such rules which apply
to all inmates. |
What Really Happened in Prison |
From 26 Nov 06, Chee reduced his food
intake and on 28 Nov 06, he stopped eating completely. Chee then
refused alternative meal options. |
Between 25 Nov 06 and 4 Dec 06, Chee
resisted blood tests (to establish the cause of his purported
nausea) and medical assistance from the prison medical officer and
the doctors of Changi General Hospital. |
Coincidentally, on the day that Chee
stopped eating (28 Nov 06), the SDP website posted a statement ¡°Dr
Chee Soon Juan¡¯s health deteriorates in prison¡± and started to
purvey the story that Chee was unwell because of his treatment in
prison. |
Soon after that, several foreign
Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) wrote to express concerns
similar to that purveyed by the SDP over Chee¡¯s health and his
treatment in prison. |
Then just as strangely as Chee had
stopped eating on 28 Nov 06, Chee abruptly resumed eating his
meals on 4 Dec 06. He ate his dinner ordered from a menu of
choices at Changi General Hospital. |
The results of medical tests showed
that Chee was fit and that he should be discharged from hospital. |
On his return to prison, and when he
was placed in a cell under CCTV observation, Chee decided to eat
prison meals and behaved well enough to be eligible for remission
of his sentence. Chee was released with remission of sentence on
16 Dec 06. |
Chee¡¯s incarceration is a result of
his own doing and political motivation ¨C he broke the law and was
convicted with due process but chose to go to jail instead of
paying the fine. |
Chee¡¯s insinuations about being the
victim of some food conspiracy by the authorities are ridiculous
and a product of his own mischief. |
The facts about Chee¡¯s conduct and
actions in prison show that no one has made him nauseous; the
medical tests done in the hospital showed that he was fit to
return to prison. |
Instead, what is clear is that Chee¡¯s
purported ¡°ailment¡± in prison served only to provide an expedient
story for his associates and foreign supporters to faithfully
distort and exploit for political mileage. |
In the end, this was what really
happened with Chee in prison. |
MINISTRY OF HOME
AFFAIRS
20 DECEMBER 2006 |
Source:
www.mha.gov.sg Media Release
20 Dec 2006 |
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