Marina's Note On Her Visit

Marina's Note On Her Visit
17 Sept, 2008

My two girls and I managed to see RPK at 11:00am this morning (16 September) at the Bukit Aman Police HQ.

He has been sleeping on a wooden platform without any pillow or bedding.

He looked drawn and drained but still alert.

I started informed him that the support he has at home and abroad is keeping us strong and that should be enough for him too to continue to be strong. I also told him that the Pakatan Raykat has the numbers to form the next government and it is just a matter of time that we would soon get him out.

He has lost weight and his sugar level has dived from 8 to 4. I urged him to eat and to drink a lot of water. In fact we brought him his favorites: a 6-pack coke, chocolates, fresh plums, shepherd’s pie and caramel custard. Raja Petra asked us to take them back. He said that those interrogating him would try to use these food items as inducements to get him to co-operate. RPK said he did not want to be beholden to them. They will use favours they grudgingly grant and use these as trade offs.

He complained that the food supplied is such that our two cats will not even eat. But I encouraged him that despite that, he has to eat. He replied that he has no appetite and that most of the time he is tired as they are interrogating him incessantly. They come to his cell (8X8 concrete box without windows) and harass him at all hours of the day and night taking hourly turns having a video camera at all times. One time they brought a prayer mat and the Koran to his cell and just said so you don’t want this and took it away recording all this.

Sometimes they just come to the cell every half hourly to peep into his cell with the loud clicking of the peep hole keeping him awake. They are interrogating him on all his articles and at this stage it is on his articles on Islam. They said he has no right to write about Islam because we (his family) don’t live like Muslims and they were not sure whether we prayed or not as how all good Muslims should.

During our visit a video camera was trained on us all the time that I was with RPK. There were always two officers in the room with us for the whole duration. When an officer came in to tell us that we had 10 minutes left, I took the opportunity to brief him on all the happenings related to his being in the ISA...

Teresa Kok arrested; the reporter arrested and then released after 16 hours; the candlelight vigils at Bukit Aman, Bloghouse and Dewan Sri Penang. I told him that he has made history on the ISA issue that the even the Barison Nasional component partners, Gerakan, MCA, PPP and some Ministers and even Zaid Ibrahim has resigned over the wrongful use of the ISA, about the awesome crowd at Kelana Jaya Stadium last night and about the Free RPK banners around the stadium and how the crowd of about 20,000 chanted ‘bebaskan RPK’ .

I also told him that I was going to the lawyer’s office after our visit to file habeas corpus and to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Press Conference at 2pm on the cross overs.

I informed him that our team of lawyers will be seeing him on Thursday at 11am, but the police called my lawyers in the afternoon and changed the time to 10am tomorrow.