SINGAPORE – A group representing 60 former detainees on Thursday released a statement demanding the abolition of the Internal Security Act (ISA), an apology from the Government, and compensation for them and their families.

The statement was released by civil society group Function 8, which held a press conference on Thursday morning to mark the 60th anniversary of Operation Coldstore.

In response to the statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said later on Thursday that the allegations and assertions in the statement by the former detainees are not new. 

It added: “The Government has addressed it comprehensively in past public communications, which are a matter of public record.”

About 80 people attended the press conference, including former ISA detainees and their family members.

About 60 former detainees or their family members signed the statement, including Dr Poh Soo Kai, former assistant secretary-general of Barisan Sosialis, whose own statement accompanied the collective one, and Ms Mavis Puthucheary, wife of late politician James Puthucheary.

Operation Coldstore was a security operation that led to the arrest of more than 100 people on Feb 2, 1963. 

Many detained were politicians from Barisan Sosialis –  a political party formed in 1961 from expelled left-wing members of the People’s Action Party.

The Government has maintained that those arrested were communist sympathisers plotting to subvert the state.

At the press conference on Thursday, the press release along with a statement by Dr Poh was read by activist Kokila Annamalai.

It said: “The ISA... has been used by the PAP government repeatedly against those it feared would be threats to its power.”

Dr Poh was in attendance via Zoom from Malaysia, where he currently lives.

Also conducting the press conference was former lawyer, politician and detainee Teo Soh Lung, who was arrested under the ISA in 1987.

The ISA enables a person to be detained for a period of time without trial, should he be deemed a threat to national security.

When asked about the continued relevance of the ISA, given that a self-radicalised teenager had just been announced as the latest detainee, Ms Teo said such matters should be decided in open court rather than through the Act.

In 2011, the MHA had said in response to a separate statement by some former detainees that the detainees, including Dr Poh, were not held for their political beliefs but because they were involved in subversive activities which posed a threat to national security.

It added that the communist threat at the time was “not just a violent insurgency, but also the systemic subversion of the political arena to create strife and destabilise Singapore”.

The ministry went on to describe how several of the detainees were linked to various communist-related movements and plots.