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Page11
Chia Thye Poh by Tan Jing Quee |
For Chia Thye Poh ( after 32 years of political detention ) The statement There is a certain immortality In your simplicity, your smile -- Pure, resolute, unyielding, Mocking the tyrant’s curses , Compel tyranny’s stranglehold to yield, Such a surrender, a victory so sweet As touches the hearts, lifts the spirit Of the humble and the brave. There is a certain immortality In your courage, your tenacity -- Resolute, unyielding, pure, A beacon for a suffering humanity, Turning the wheel of solitary decades Holding aloft the eternal flame for justice, truth; Time, like flowing waters Shall move relentlessly on, never retreating, Until an irresistible tide shall rise To propel the human will to overcome. There is a certain immortality In your endurance, your sacrifices -- Unyielding, pure, resolute; Like springs of clear, sparkling waters Flowing thru rushing streams to unbounded seas, Wearing down hideous boulders of inequities, Moving putrid piles of accumulated miseries: Brave Titan, You and the enduring band Have conquered them all; The years have fled in shame Time shall uncover the brutalities, the lies; The dregs of bitter tears stay in the cup To await a coming vindication The indictment In South Africa, Amidst jubilant pomp, acclamation Nelson Mandela strode out, Like a colossus, From prison cells on Robin Isle To the Presidential palace at Pretoria, The slate wiped clean of old accusations - Convict, rebel, terrorist; A new glory unveiled in golden prose, Celebrating a valiant, noble crusade, A heroic war for liberation . In the assembly of truth and reconciliation Convened by the exemplary grace, magnanimity, Of the humble and the oppressed, Erstwhile inquisitors, heads bowed, penitent, Confessed, in tears, to gross atrocities Pleading for a fresh lease, To join the human race, and the march Towards a new, greater common weal. Here in the equator, A different fate awaits the just and the brave, Imprisoned without trial, or due process, On spurious pretexts, unproven grounds, Weary hours dragged out the passing seasons, Behind the forbidding fortress at Changi, By the sea, where planes took flight, By the minute, every hour, every day For open, foreign skies. Thirty two long, harrowing years, Longer in duration, more punitive Than Mandela’s awesome travails: You issued no call for violent insurrection You wielded no weapons, shed no blood, Spoke always as the elected voice and conscience Of the people What distortions can they trump up next, To delude the tribunal of history What causes can they plead to justify This cruel, protracted incarceration? 2001 |
| Chia Thye Poh was detained on October 1966,
when he led a anti Vietname war demonstrations outside Parliament
Building in Singapore. He presented a petion to the Clerk of Parlaiment
demanding the revoction of ISA and resotration of
democratic rights. He was detainmed for a total of 32 years,
which incouded 23 years in Changi Prison and other detention
centres, and 9 years on Sentosa Island. Thye Poh.
He was a member of the Singapore parliament for barisan sosialis from
october 1963 and was also by virtue of that, one of the three barisan MPs
in the federal parliament, until Singapore's separation from Malaysia on
9 August 1965. |
|
Technical advisor: Tony Ooi |
If you have any photos of old Penang which you would like published please send them to 35 Halaman Batu Maung 11960 Batu Maung Penang and we shall return them to you after publication If you have a story we shall be glad to publish it here. We have also an Index to all issues. If you are interested in having a copy please email us at thepenangfileg@yahoo.co.uk giving your name, address as well as your email address |
| ______ INDEX Point to the article
that you want to read, and CLICK
Index page
Art, Jazz Book
review Chia Thye Poh
The food guide
The jungle war (11) |
| _____________________ The Penang File Issue 52 |