“Cannot be to Syria right? So must be another country.” The lies ISD tell themselves.
Article #11
On another occasion, Tim pulled back without forcing me to sign a statement. They had been shouting at me for hours telling me that I wanted to migrate and fight in Syria. They told me I had made plans to go.
I told them it did not make sense. But they went on and on.
Once again, I decided after several hours that it did not matter. I had signed so many other statements. What difference did this one make.
Chang had told me that after the first “confessions”, whatever I told them would not affect my status anymore.
“I used to work as prosecutor. There was this housebreaking case in Stirling Road that guy robbed a lot of houses” he explained. But when he was charged, the prosecution preferred to charge him only on 3 offences, “the rest were all taken into consideration. He was not tried for it.”
He told me that they would punish me only for the earlier statements I made. The rest were just taken into consideration.
After hours of threats and screams, I once again agreed to their demand. Tim told me to come up with a story.
“How will you go to Syria?” he shouted.
“By plane.”
“Which airport?”
“I don’t know.”
“Which airport?” he asked again.
“I don’t know. You are the one saying I want to go. You tell me.”
“Cannot be to Syria right? So must be another country.”
I remembered Turkey was next to Syria. “Yes. Turkey.”
“Which airport in Turkey?”
“Istanbul.”
“Who was your contact there?”
“Ahmad.” There was of course, no Ahmad. Just a convenient name to make up.
“Which gateway in Syria?”
I had no clue what they were asking. But I remember reading about Aleppo.
“Aleppo” I told them.
“Which gateway?” Tim shouted.
“Aleppo” I repeated.
I had no clue where Aleppo was in Syria.
By this time, I was planning the story ahead. If he asked how I would get into Syria from Turkey, it would be by bus. If there was a supposed route, I thought of Bus number 263. I did not know if there was such a thing. But they wanted me to make things up.
Finally Tim looked at his phone and gave a signal to Ong. Ong called a Gurkha officer into the interrogation room. Tim, Ong and Roslan left.
When they returned to the room a few minutes later, they abandoned that line of questioning.
And not every statement remained on file. At least, that was what Tim told me.
Tim asked me about secularism. I explained that secularism was about materiality. It is about a focus on the transient, material world. He listened to my explanation and typed a statement. I signed it.
The next time we met, Tim showed me a folded piece of paper.
“This is your statement about secularism” he said. “This is what I think of it.”
He held it between both hands and tore the statement. I still do not know what that whole drama was about.
Probably the second week after my arrest, Tim asked me if Singapore Muslims were oppressed by the government. I said it was not about oppression, it was about policy. Tim typed a statement saying I believed Singapore Muslims suffered from “policy oppression.”
I did not use that term. “Policy oppression” sounded strange. But I signed it anyway. It did not make any difference.
A few days later, Chang joined the interrogation.
“You know I saw your statement you said ‘policy oppression’” he began. “That was interesting, because you said in another statement policy oppression must do jihad.”
“What? No, I didn’t.”
Chang was trying to make me agree to saying I encouraged jihad in Singapore.
“Yes you did.” He turned to Tim “You read right? He said policy oppression must do jihad.”
Tim looked confused. He and I knew that he was the one who made up the phrase and now Chang wanted him to agree that I encouraged jihad based on that made up statement.
“I’m not sure” he said sheepishly.
“Yes, didn’t you read Ah Choo’s email? Ah Choo showed he said policy oppression must do jihad.”
“I’m not sure” Tim said again.
“Yes, Ah Choo emailed to you” Chang tried to push.
He must have wondered why Tim did not play along.
Finally Tim said, half-heartedly “Yes, yes that’s right. He said that.”
I thought that was hilarious.
Tim knew that Chang was caught in his lie.
And all of us just played along.
Continued in the next article.