ISA FOCUS “Outside, eight years seems like a very long time. Inside, you're looking at the same wall, the same tree. It doesn't feel that long,” said the man who was detained at the age of 20 for allegedly being pro-communist.

In fact, Chong Tong Sin, who was first held at the Muar detention camp prior to the building of the Kamunting Camp, recalled his initial ISA days as being “like in a university”, with so many make-shift classes and new people coming in that there was “not enough time”.

The move to Kamunting in 1973 also promised good things. Vast and new, the “200 to 300” detainees who were moved from Muar to the Perak facility felt 'freer' there, until a detainee committed suicide...