Sungai Buloh - "Crocodile pond". Not to be confused with Sungai Buloh Nature Park, in Singapore.
Modern maximum-security Sungai Buloh Prison, about 25 kilometres west of Kuala Lumpur, houses about 3,400 prisoners including Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, previously (and some would say still) incumbent for the position of Prime Minister. Mahathir Mohammed, Malaysia's present PM, decided to sully Anwar's campaign trail, so to speak. On a series of false and trumped-up charges, Anwar was:
- Fired
- Arrested with an array of charges
- Tried on corruption charges
- Sentenced to six years in jail
- Found guilty on August 8, 2000 of sodomy
- Sentenced to nine years in jail.
The judge ruled that the term should begin after Anwar finishes a
six-year sentence imposed last year for abuse of
power.1
This means Anwar Ibrahim will serve 15 years for being an upstart to Mahathir. Who is really abusing power here?
Here is a description of how anal searches are carried out in Sungai Buloh:
"Anal searches are common worldwide, but what
distinguished those at Sungai Buloh is that a guard in a
green surgical mask would probe dozens of new
arrivals at a time using the same pair of latex gloves.
Inmates feared this procedure because of the high risk
of spreading Aids among a population that includes
many intravenous drug users." 2
The fact that Malaysia is one of the world's prime exporters of latex ought not to go unmentioned.
1 http://www.feer.com/_0008_17/p21region.html (accessed August 16, 2000)
2 FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW's Kuala Lumpur Bureau Chief Murray Hiebert in http://www.feer.com/9911_11/p37prison.html (accessed August 16, 2000)