"Prison Department's task is to control them with a feeling of humanity and help them lead useful and law-abiding while in custody and after release."

- Official portal of Prisons Department of Malaysia

COMMENT When a person is imprisoned for his or her views, they do not go to prison alone. Their families are in prison with them. This reality came sharply into focus when I was talking to Uthayakumar's wife, S Indra Devi.

Her anxiety about Uthayakumar's condition in prison flows in a torrent of words that is a mix of fear, anger and sadness. She is proud of him but at the same time fearful of what may lie ahead. She understands his cause and has been through his incarcerations before but this time it is different. This time she fears for his very life brought on by physical ailments he suffers and uncaring prison system which by all accounts is more soul destroying than being incarcerated under the ISA.

She is very aware that at the end of the day there is only so much help that she can get. The news cycle works against her and she alone is the human face that represents her husband. She talks of closing up his law practice and wonders how she will carry on now that he is in prison. She constantly fears of how he is coping in a system that by his own admission he has waged a lonely crusade against...