Three Internal Security Act detainees Tian Chua, Lokman Nor Adam and Hishamuddin Rais have complained that they were not allowed to pursue further studies while under detention despite being offered to take up courses by a local university.

Their complaint was revealed to malaysiakini yesterday through Keadilan supreme council member and lawyer Cheah Kah Peng.

Cheah, who met the detainees at the Kamunting camp in Perak yesterday, said the trio were informed by camp officials that permission must first come from the Home Ministry.

It is learnt that the offer to the detainees came from Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Letter of appeal

Cheah said he submitted a letter of appeal o­n the matter recently but has yet to receive a reply although the request by the detainees was made a year ago.

"What's wrong with education? The ministry has deprived them of their right to freedom under the ISA. Does it now want to also deprive them of the right to education?" he asked.

Perhaps the most famous Malaysian detainee who was allowed to pursue tertiary education while serving time is DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang. He graduated as a lawyer while under detention in the 70's.

Cheah, with fellow Keadilan supreme council member Gooi Hock Seng and another lawyer Gooi Hsiao Loong, had met the detainees, including Dr Badrul Amin Bahron, after the group's meeting with the three-member ISA Advisory Board yesterday.

According to Cheah, the board expressed "surprise" at seeing the detainees still in the camp. Their detention is up for review by the Home Ministry this June as they would have completed their two-year sentence then.

The Board recommended to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong that the detainees be released last year but the government had so far not acted o­n it.

The government had also ignored similar calls made by the ISA Review Board and Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

Plea for freedom

Meanwhile, Cheah said Badrul is pleading for early freedom as he is very ill.

"Badrul's condition has deteriorated because he was previously made to travel to Kuala Lumpur handcuffed and blindfolded," he said.

Being confined in a humid cell and o­nly allowed to go out into an open space for a few hours a day in the camp, has also somehow made him feel "disorientated", he explained.

"I saw him with my own eyes and he is very sick. The situation in the camp has made it very difficult for him to recover from his illness," Cheah said.

"The place is definitely not for sick people. Badrul is really very weak, he looks like he is about to faint when I saw him. He also had difficulties sitting or standing."

Badrul, a former Keadilan supreme council member, pleaded through Cheah, "I want to be released, there is no point keeping me here. There is no charge, no conviction, no hearing".