Sdp's Let's Talk with Michael Fernandez - Part 1

Welcome to Let's Talk. Nine years, that's how long our next guest was imprisoned without a trial. Michael Fernandez, a trade union leader, was detained under the Internal Security Act from 1964 to 1973. He was advocating for better working conditions for Singaporean women working as maids for the Europeans in Singapore In his modest way, Mr Fernandez says that he was just helping people who needed his help. The government has tried to wipe off from the pages of history, the injustice that has been meted out to leaders like Mr Fernandez. Today, we are very fortunate to hear straight from him what happened during those dark years under detention to get his side of the story. Welcome to Let's Talk, Michael. Thank you. Take us back to that fateful day in 1964, when the ISD came knocking on your door to arrest you. What happened during those moments when they took you away, what went through your mind? how did you feel? My feeling at that time was just expectant. I was expecting the arrest because quite a lot of my friends, my colleagues and Singapore Business Employees' Union, Tan Jing Quee and others, were already arrested. In all, how many years were you actually detained? I was detained from 1964 till 1973, almost nine years. That was the year I was born, 1973 Nine years. How did you survive all these years? Many people would have given up And many did. Did you feel like giving up? I would say yes and no. I would say yes because during the hunger strike in 1967, I was removed and put into an interrogation centre alone, and they tried to force feed me and I resisted. I thought of doing something to end my life because it was nearly unbearable, physically. That's one thing. And no, I would say that I always had this simple thought in my mind, the government locked me up because I tried to help the workers. I don't think I committed a sin, nor a crime. That kept me going. The government has said that it does not ill-treat political detainees. But what we heard from you was that you all were ill-treated and you all were force fed. So can you tell us more about your experience? Ok, let me go back to this situation. I mentioned that 1967 we were put along with the prisoners and we were kept in Changi Prison along with the prisoners for three years until December 1970 we were transferred to new blocks of prisons, called Moon Crescent Centre. Beautiful sounding name, very romantic name. There were several blocks. In each block there were a few detainees kept, five sometimes three, and the conditions were worse than before. The food ration was reduced tremendously and our family visits were cut to once a week, only 20 minutes. Formerly, it was open visit. We could see, like talk to, for example you are my father and I'm the detainee and I could talk to you like this. No. After that we could only talk to our families through telephone There was a barrier, a glass barrier. We couldn't touch Third point, we could not meet our legal advisor Mr. T T Rajah was our legal advisor except when we filed a case in court. Only then we could meet him. So several issues like that. And we were locked up in the new prison for 16 hours a day and conditions were bad. So we put up these grievances, took up these issues with the prison authorities and the ISD. They couldn't be bothered. So we prepared ourselves. It took us a few months to prepare ourselves to go on a long hunger strike. The first nine days we only drank water. After that I think most of us collapsed. Then the prison authorities brought in the doctor and the nurses and the Superintendent and tried to force feed us. I refused to be force fed. I was handcuffed from behind, put on a chair, handcuffed from behind and one warden was to stand on my handcuffed hands and another was to sit on my lap and open my mouth with a jaw opener and stuffed in a nearly one-inch diametre tube and pour porridge, thin porridge into my stomach And for me it was a bad ordeal because the porridge didn't stay in my stomach. Either I vomited or purged. So as a result I lost about seven kilos. And because I was so thin and I couldn't walk, I was transferred to the prison hospital and put on drip for 23 days. Later when my condition was a bit better they brought me back But we continued with our hunger strike for 135 days. Until the government or the prison authorities agreed to negotiate on the living conditions, the food items, our visits and our legal advisor. These issues were discussed and some of them were resolved. Now Michael, when you were released finally in 1973, were there any conditions placed on your release? Ok, I think we've got to back a bit on the situation then existing. Our long hunger strike then in 1971 attracted a lot of publicity locally and more internationally. Particularly the hunger strike was during the Commonwealth conference of prime ministers in Singapore. That gave a lot of coverage internationally. And also pressure from outside. The families of detainees demonstrated in front of the prison, in front of the Ministry of Home Affairs. All these pressures added up. And also they failed to break us mentally and physically during the hunger strike. All these factors, I think, contributed to the government's decision to release detainees gradually a few at a time. We were the first two to be released, myself and Wee Tun Lip in 1973 April without any conditions. And gradually later on, some other detainees were also released without any conditions until ah... most of them were released on this basis. Let me get period clear again. You went on hunger strike for 135 days. I am speechless when I hear something like that. Because of the immense interest in today's subject we decided to do a two-part interview with Mr. Fernandez. Please visit us again soon for the second half of this episode of Let's Talk. That's it from all of us at SDP for now. See you again.