Ex-detainee Vincent Cheng condemns ISA
By Tessa Wong
MAKING his first appearance at an election rally last night, former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Vincent Cheng maintained his innocence and denied he was ever a Marxist leader.
Describing his arrest and detention 24 years ago, Mr Cheng said he was beaten into writing a false confession while he was held.
He called for the abolishment of the ISA, calling it a 'PAP tool to demolish opposition in Singapore', while detention without trial was a 'grave injustice'.
He spoke for 15 minutes at last night's rally of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), which he joined two months ago.
A former Roman Catholic church worker, he was detained in 1987 together with 21 others - including the SDP candidate in Yuhua SMC, Ms Teo Soh Lung - and accused of being part of a Marxist conspiracy.�He was released in 1990.
The 64-year-old, who gave a similar account of his experience at a SDP rally last September, said he had been only a social worker trained in community organisation.
The alleged mastermind of the conspiracy was said to be Tan Wah Piow, who had fled Singapore in 1976.
But Mr Cheng said: 'There was no Marxist conspiracy. I was never the leader of the alleged Marxist group. I never had any political connections with Tan Wah Piow, nor did I ever receive any instruction from him to conduct a subversive movement in Singapore to overthrow the state.'
He said that during detention he was placed in a freezing room and 'verbally abused, slapped many times on my face, beaten on my chest and back, and punched in my abdomen'.
'I allowed myself to be a docile puppet, writing long pages of self-incriminating lies and half-truths,' he added.
By Tessa Wong
MAKING his first appearance at an election rally last night, former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Vincent Cheng maintained his innocence and denied he was ever a Marxist leader.
Describing his arrest and detention 24 years ago, Mr Cheng said he was beaten into writing a false confession while he was held.
He called for the abolishment of the ISA, calling it a 'PAP tool to demolish opposition in Singapore', while detention without trial was a 'grave injustice'.
He spoke for 15 minutes at last night's rally of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), which he joined two months ago.
A former Roman Catholic church worker, he was detained in 1987 together with 21 others - including the SDP candidate in Yuhua SMC, Ms Teo Soh Lung - and accused of being part of a Marxist conspiracy.�He was released in 1990.
The 64-year-old, who gave a similar account of his experience at a SDP rally last September, said he had been only a social worker trained in community organisation.
The alleged mastermind of the conspiracy was said to be Tan Wah Piow, who had fled Singapore in 1976.
But Mr Cheng said: 'There was no Marxist conspiracy. I was never the leader of the alleged Marxist group. I never had any political connections with Tan Wah Piow, nor did I ever receive any instruction from him to conduct a subversive movement in Singapore to overthrow the state.'
He said that during detention he was placed in a freezing room and 'verbally abused, slapped many times on my face, beaten on my chest and back, and punched in my abdomen'.
'I allowed myself to be a docile puppet, writing long pages of self-incriminating lies and half-truths,' he added.
