“I don’t have time to deal with you.” Trying to get a lawyer and failing
Article #18
Around 16th August, I was taken out for what I thought was another round of interrogations. But this time, I was told to put on the brown pyjama pants rather than the blue shorts. I was taken to a room with grey curtains. After a few minutes wait, a bespectacled Malay man in his early 30s came in. He introduced himself as Hafiz, the psychologist.
According to Hafiz, he was going to help me cope with detention. The first few times that I met him, Hafiz told me that he knew how it feels to be in detention.
“It is the same as me sitting in my bedroom, lock the door and windows” he declared.
I thought that was amazing and totally lacking in empathy and logic.
“Hafiz, that is like me closing my eyes and telling a blind man I know how he feels. You have the option of opening the door.”
I told Hafiz that I was worried for my family.
“What if something happens while I am in detention. I don’t know when I will be with them again. What if something happens before I am released?”
Hafiz replied matter-of-factly, without any trace of compassion. “I am sure your children will be alive. Your mother maybe not.”
I met Hafiz and his manager, Roslinda the next couple of days. I had read about Roslinda before my detention. She completed her PhD at Monash University.
I was put through some tests and word association exercises. We discussed the coming Advisory Board meeting. I did not know when it would be and how I would represent myself.
Roslinda said that it was possible for me to engage a lawyer. I was surprised.
Could I?
When I met with Ong and Larsson a few days later, I asked them about the possibility of engaging a lawyer.
“Am I allowed?” I asked them.
“Who told you, you can get a lawyer?” Ong asked me, looking uncomfortable.
“Roslinda” I told them.
Ong said he would check. A few days later, I met with Tim and asked him the same question. He told me he would get back to me.
I realised that it would be difficult to arrange for a lawyer. My mother did not have the resources and my wife was back in Melbourne. I did not want to trouble my brother especially since he was flying and helping his wife’s bakery on his off days.
“I would like to meet with the Australian consulate” I told Tim.
I hoped that the consulate could help me engage a lawyer. The ISD controlled all my communications. Everyone and everything had to go through the department. The consulate would be a channel independent of ISD’s control.
A few days later, around 31st August, Tim told me that I was not allowed to meet with the Australian consulate because I was a Singaporean.
I asked him about arranging a lawyer. He told me that was not his job and I would need to arrange it with “the prison side”, meaning the ISD officers who oversaw the detention centre.
Gilbert was the Detention centre’s Superintendent.
Throughout the interrogation period and the next few months, even though Tim did not answer my questions whether I was allowed to engage a lawyer, he and Chang were clear that my family should not meet with one.
Tim referred to lawyers as “clowns” and told me not to allow them to use my “case and make it a circus.”
When they heard my mother or my wife mention lawyers, they became upset. After the family visits, I would be interrogated about it. I was aware that it would not be easy.
On 6th of September, I was taken to one of the interrogation rooms. Gilbert, the superintendent and another officer, Leong, were there. I was given a notice to meet with the Advisory Board (AB). It was scheduled for 19th September.
According to the notice, I was allowed to engage a lawyer. And yet the last few weeks, whenever I asked them about it Ong, Tim and Larsson pretended not to know.
I told Gilbert that I would like a lawyer. He told me to go through Tim. I told him that according to Tim, his department was responsible for it.
“No, we have nothing to do with lawyer” Gilbert replied.
“I was told it’s from the prison side.”
“No, that will be your case officer’s side.” Tim was my case officer.
How was I supposed to get a lawyer? Both Gilbert and Tim said it was the other’s responsibility.
“Write down your lawyer’s name.”
“I don’t have one yet. I was told to go through you” I pleaded.
“I don’t have time to deal with you. Do you have a lawyer?”
“No, but I would like to get one. I need to ask my family.”
Gilbert turned to Leong “We can give him until Thursday right?” he checked. It was Tuesday. I had 2 days to get a lawyer and inform the ISD.
Leong nodded.
After the meeting, I requested to meet with Tim. I needed to make arrangements. My mother was going to visit me the next day but I could not request for her to arrange for a lawyer and get the name immediately.
I wanted to ask if the ISD could inform my family to arrange for a lawyer and to tell me the next day, when my mother met with me. Otherwise, I would not be able to have one.
My mother’s next visit would be the next week, after the due date that Gilbert gave me.
Tim did not meet with me.
The next day, when he came to listen to my conversation with my mother, Tim barked at me “What do you want? You called me yesterday!”
“I wanted to engage a lawyer. Gilbert told me to go through you” I explained.
“Tell your mother. Tell her to arrange” he replied.
“I need to know the name of the lawyer by tomorrow.”
“Nevermind, they can give you more time.”
The next day, I waited for a message from my family about a lawyer.
There was none.
I was brought to meet with Gilbert again and was told that there would be no more time. I had to declare that I would not have a lawyer.
After meeting Gilbert, I was brought to meet with Chang again. As usual, he criticised my wife.
“She asked the aftercare officer for information. I told them no. Don’t give. Who does she think she is? She asked when is the AB and what time. No, I told them don’t give her!”
I did not know what he was on. My wife asked for the Advisory Board date and time? Why and why not tell her?
The next week when I met with my mother, I found out what happened.
Shireen had asked about the AB meeting so she could arrange for a lawyer for me.
The ISD refused to tell her, even after she asked them repeatedly. My mother was upset and I was told Shireen was distressed.
When I met Ong after the visit, I could not control myself anymore. I had been polite with them the whole time. Even when they shouted and screamed and threatened my family, I spoke with them respectfully. This one time, I blew up.
“You have me here. You chain me. You have my head on the ground and you are pressing and pressing on it. And I take it. But don’t you dare do that to my wife!” I shouted.
Ong was shocked. “If you feel upset, then I am sorry that you are upset.”
“You can become a politician. You apologise without apologising” I told him.
“No, I am not apologising.”
“Yea. You can be a politician.”
The next day, Chang came to see me. I knew that he had been informed that I was angry. He began with some inconsequential small talk.
I told him that I was angry the day before when I found out his decision.
“You know, it is difficult to tell your wife. She live in Australia. That’s why I don’t want to tell her. Because you know ah, the message have to go through satellite and then don’t know if she will get it. So better don’t tell her.”
Right.
I was amazed at how ISD officers believed their own lies.
Continued in the next article.