“By electing to share her experience of her two and a half years as a political prisoner with a wider audience, Teo Soh Lung has spoken out on behalf of many of her compatriots who suffered a similar trauma but chose to remain silent witnesses for a variety of reasons. Though armed conflict never engulfed post war Singapore, it is estimated that a few thousand men and women of various backgrounds were incarcerated without due process by the State from the early fifties to the late eighties as part of its pacification program to keep its residents and citizens at bay. Many personal lives were destroyed besides the anguish, mental and physical, suffered by their loved ones. This human tragedy represents the lesser known social costs of Singapore’s ‘modernisation’ and is only now beginning to be told. As we approach the second half century of Statehood, it is timely to call for the abolition of the ISA and its consignment to the rubbish heap of History.”
Koh Kay Yew
Function 8 