Page 38 - BOOK inside pages as at Aug 8

Behind the Walls of Pudu Jail

staying in Pudu Jail still gives me nightmares to this day.
At meal times, there were no tables and chairs, and we ate
sitting or squatting around the hall. At one point, I refused
to eat anything for almost one week. The food was hardly
edible; the rice smelled repulsive and it was served with
salted fish and bean sprouts every day. The fish had a rotten
odour. The older inmates advised me to eat, otherwise I would
not survive. They warned that I would become so weak that
I might easily succumb to sicknesses and die in prison. From
then on, I struggled just to keep myself alive.
In those two years, I saw heroin and all kinds of drugs
available in jail, including drugs that were not easily
available outside!
The prisoners were always looking for opportunities to
smuggle things in to sell. In my earlier years in prison, I was
involved in smuggling contraband, including drugs. There
were three of us who worked together and I would be in the
background providing support. We were able to bring things
into the prison when we returned from court or hospital. I did
it because that was the only way I could earn money to hire a
good lawyer. A senior lawyer had wanted to charge RM15,000
to fight my case.
During one inspection, some prisoners were made to take
laxatives and one of my men was caught for having three
packets of drugs in his stomach, each weighing about 2 taels
(74 grams). When charged in court, he won the case because
the lawyer had argued that the prisoner had picked up the
packets from the bucket where several others had excreted.
The prosecutor could not prove beyond doubt that the packets
of drugs belonged to him. For that reason, he escaped.
There were whistleblowers who were out to get me and
my men into trouble. At one time, the wardens found some
money and weapons stashed away in the library where I was
in charge. As a result of that, the library in the Pudu Jail had
to be closed.
After the prison authorities installed scanners, it was more
difficult to smuggle things in, but some prisoners were so
creative they still succeeded. If they had put their creativity

38

BOOK inside pages.indd 38 08/08/2018 05:44 PM