When Tian Chua was arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and held under solitary confinement in a secret police cell, he was told by his captors, "From now on you will answer only to this number - XXXXXX."

This is one of the many methods employed to strip ISA detainees from any semblance of humanity.

Others include sleep depravation, the forced cutting of one's hair, desecration of items of one's religious belief and the all-time favourite (said to be in every international police-military manual on how to deal with political prisoners) sex.
This ranges from threatening to rape one's spouse and children, forcing a detainee to simulate sexual acts and attempting to induce sexual arousal not unlike what G.I. Jills did in the Abu Ghraib Prison.

It doesn't matter if one is an ustaz from Kota Bahru, a respected Chinese educationist, or a PhD holder. The standard procedure is - whatever means necessary to 'break' the detainee. In Malaysia, the police proudly call this 'turning over'.

Last weekend marked the end of the second detention order for nine ISA detainees Ahmad Pozi Darman, Alias Ngah, Nik Adli Nik Abdul Aziz, Solehan Abdul Ghafar, Mohd Lothfi Ariffin, Mohd Rafi Udin, Mohd Zulkifli Mohd Zakaria, Zainon Ismail and Zid Sharani Mohd Isa.

The majority of Malaysians neither know their names nor the fact that they have been held without trial in Kamunting for more than four years.

For the guards in Kamunting, these men are just numbers.

Rendered nameless

It took a mere scrawl of the Home Minister's signature to render them persona non grata. Only their family members and a handful of human rights activists remind us on every available occasion that these men have names; that they are human beings and have a right to a fair trial.

When the nine were first arrested in July 2001, they were known as Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM). Shortly after, the government realised that any self-respecting Muslim would feel sympathy for mujahids (warriors in defence of Islam). It is said that the media was later asked re-write them as Kumpulan Militan Malaysia.

In May 2002, the Minister of Home Affairs, and now Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told Parliament that a White Paper would be issued on the KMM, where all would be revealed according to the government.

More than three years down the line, we haven't seen this White Paper nor do we know anything more about these nine men. Only that they are, in the words of the government, 'threats to national security'.

But even that label wears thin. A good number of people - some writers, social activists and politicians - have been detained under the ISA for the same reason. Among the luminaries are Dr Kua Kia Soong, Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang.

To this day, many wonder how Tian Chua could have held up a rocket-launcher (one of the allegations by former Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai) because it would have weighed more than him!

It is doubtful if the government has any intention of prosecuting these alleged KMM members.

One of the first things told to alleged members of KMM and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and their family members was to be 'good'.

Don't make trouble like Tian Chua and the reformists. Don't file lawsuits. Don't contact human rights groups or lawyers. Don't let your wives talk to the media. And we will release you very soon. It's that easy.

Extension order

When Abdullah signs off another set of papers this week, he's not going care if it's another two years of incarceration for Alias Ngah or Zainon Ismail.

He's not going to ask for, or remember, their names.

In this millennium, we find ourselves in a revised version of the Age of Barbarism, where rule of law and civil liberties have been circumvented by might and spectres of 'green' terror.

Groups such as KMM serve a greater purpose for the powers-that-be, and keeping them behind barbed wires gives our government international street cred (credibility) for bludgeoning alleged 'terrorists'.

If these Malaysians think Ahmad Pozi Darman, Alias Ngah, Nik Adli Nik Abdul Aziz, Solehan Abdul Ghafar, Mohd Lothfi Ariffin, Mohd Rafi Udin, Mohd Zulkifli Mohd Zakaria, Zainon Ismail and Zid Sharani Mohd Isa deserve to be locked up for the way they look, the associates and family members they have, and for the alleged crimes they have not committed, think again.

In a twist of fate, Muslim Malaysians in the US and Europe now live under the all-seeing eye of anti-terror legislation. Right after Sept 11, the Malaysian government was quick to offer the world the ISA as an exemplary law.

One cannot be too sure if any country had taken up the offer; suffice to say that the essence of the US Patriot Act and the selection of anti-terror laws in the UK and Australia resembles that of the ISA.

Nowadays, if you look different, go to a mosque, have visited Pakistan or Indonesia, and in some countries, carry a backpack (bonus points if you pack a Qur'an) and wear thick bulky overcoat, the chances of being pounced on or have your neighbours dialling the police are pretty high.

And it's doubtful you'll get to keep your name.