It was Saturday, June 20, I had finished two office files in preparation for Monday. It was almost 12.30 am and Peter, my husband, was already asleep.

We were saying in a semi-detached single-storey house that belonged to a friend. We were both very tired and tense. We had been since May 20 when the first 16 people were arrested.

I had met lawyer and opposition leader J B Jeyaretnam for tea at the Subordinate Courts canteen on Wednesday, June 17. I had met two Amnesty International officials on Thursday evening, June 18, and I just had dinner with two friends on the night of 19 June.

I went to bed at about 1 am. At slightly before 2 am, very loud banging on the glass door woke me. Still half asleep, I thought the noise might go away, but I heard it again, and some noises outside the house. I woke Peter and he went to the door.

I saw flashing lights and some people outside. One of them said that they were searching for illegal immigrants and showed his badge. He also said that he was from Joo Chiat Police Station. I felt fear and knew that they were Internal Security Department (ISD) officers.

Peter opened the door and let in the four officers, three Chinese males and one female. He carried a sack. Once inside, a Chinese in his early 40s asked whether I was Tang Fong Har. I nodded yes, and he told me that I was under arrest under the Internal Security Act.

Though it was not totally unexpected, I was nevertheless stunned and speechless. He warned us not to move, and the others then systematically searched the house  and a male Sikh (after my release I found out he was Dr Naranjin Singh, the head of the Prison Medical Unit). He examined me, took my pulse, looked at my tongue and eyes, and asked whether I had any medical problems, had been to the hospital or was pregnant. I replied in the negative very vigorously as I was worried that he might inject some drugs or prescribe some medicine, which would affect my mental and/or physical faculties adversely.

I felt really frightened, cold, angry and sleepy. It was the longest night in my life. After my 'medical' examination, I was led out of the room and down a passage. After some turns, I reached a door, which opened onto a flight of stairs leading to the basement.

Noises everywhere

As I walked, without my glasses, I heard noises everywhere. I was approached several times by different men, each of whom said in a haughty manner, "So you are Tang Fong Har", and then walked off. The basement was pitch-black except for the glaring lights. I was led into a room.

It was very dark except for the two spotlights, and it was filled with cigarette smoke  but I feel, with hindsight, that I was sometimes careless in describing events and people and what I wrote was twisted  but I was told that Chew Kheng Chuan (KC), a printer and one of the six detained on June 20, 1987 and Chng Suan Tze, a lecturer at the Singapore Polytechnic, also one of the six detained on June 20 would appear, and so I agreed.

Some three days before it, my case officer typed out a summary of what I had to say and made me memorise it. On the day, when we reached the ISD bungalow near Tanglin Park, my case officer took away my summary. The filming took about 90 minutes.

Khamaruddin, the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation interviewer, only asked me one question and I rattled on. When I had finished, he looked at me and asked how I felt now. This question was unexpected and I was at a complete loss for words.

The Third Stage

There was a pregnant pause; and I ended up by saying that if unwittingly I had done a disservice to Singapore, I felt bad about it. I heaved a sigh of relief when the microphone was removed. My dress was drenched with perspiration.

I then remembered that I had not talked about the Third Stage (a theatre group accused of subversion). My case officer presumably had studied the summary and realised the omission, too, and I then had to talk about the Third Stage.

Suan joined me. I felt so happy to see a friend that I hugged her. Then KC joined us. I was delighted to see him too. We were made to sit together with Khamaruddin and 'donkey shots' were taken of us to give the impression to the public that Khamaruddin had conducted the interview with the three of us together.

We were allowed to talk to each other, and ISD officers (Benny and KC's officer) joined us. Before they joined us, Suan told us that she would be detained for two years at least, as she had told Khamaruddin that she did not believe in the alleged Marxist conspiracy before her arrest, and after her arrest she had found it even more difficult to believe.

After they joined us, KC told Benny about it and asked if Suan could re-do that part. Benny assured her that it was all right if that what she believed. He also said that it would not affect her chances of release in any way. We were brought back to the detention centre in different cars.

They used a variety of methods to intimidate me and to make me feel guilty. I was made to feel ashamed of my past and consequently, ashamed of my present lifestyle.

TANG FONG HAR is one of the 22 people held in 1987 for "communist conspiracy to overthrow the Singapore government". In April that year the author, a lawyer aged 31 then, with eight other former detainees issued a declaration of innocence. All were at once rearrested, except Tang Fong Har, who was out of the country. This abridged version of the article (which was published in the August 1989 issue of Index on Censorship, a UK-based NGO) was re-published with permission from SingaporeWindow.