KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Padang Serai MP N. Surendran said he is ready to spend a night in a police detention centre to personally inspect the conditions there.
Taking up the challenge from Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, the PKR vice president also renewed his criticism of the Pulai MP for agreeing with a former judge’s suggestion to infest jails and prisons with pests and vermin.
“In the public interest, I thank him for providing this opportunity and accept his invitation. I am prepared to stay in Kajang Prison in similar conditions as the inmates in order to assess conditions, if Datuk Nur Jazlan as deputy home minister will officially authorise it,” Surendran said in a statement.
On Friday, Nur Jazlan was reported by the Free Malaysia Today news portal as agreeing with a former senior judge’s proposal to make jails and prisons inhospitable in order to elicit remorse from inmates.
Among others, former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah’s suggestion included infesting detention facilities with rats, cockroaches, and mosquitoes so that people do not intentionally commit crimes to “enjoy the facilities” provided by the Prison Department.
Nur Jazlan also told Surendran to volunteer for a night’s detention, after the latter had criticised the proposal.
Today, Surendran further rebuked Nur Jazlan for agreeing with the suggestion, calling it legally and morally wrong.
“Firstly, he has run foul of the Prison Act 1995 and Prisons Regulations 2000. There is no legal authority to introduce pests into prison in order to torment prisoners.
“Secondly, introducing such pests as companions to prisoners is in breach of Article 5 of the Federal Constitution which guarantees the right to ‘life and personal liberty’,” he said.
The federal lawmaker said that imprisonment did not mean that convicts lost access to all their basic human rights and dignities.
