Chan on his arrest, detention in Kepayan

Daily Express

a day ago

Published on: Sunday, July 13, 2025
Published on: Sun, Jul 13, 2025
By: Kan Yaw Chong Text Size: Chan in an interview with Daily Express. Also seen are his son and wife he married in 1964. IN yesterday's Daily Express report entitled 'Duo recall the dark ages during Usno', the opening paragraph started this way: 'It was a long-coming rendezvous between former fellow detainees at the infamous 'Kepayan Detention Camp', Datuk Yap Pak Leong and veteran journalist cum editor, Chan Kwong Yuen, both 90, at a book launch here, Thursday. 'The occasion was the launching of Chan's autobiography, 'Sixty years in the Storms of Journalism'.' Calling those days 'dark times', Yap, a former Minister of Labour and Environmental Development (1976-79) under the Berjaya Government headed by Tan Sri Harris Salleh, made this terse remark: 'I am sure you heard about the Kepayan Detention Camp, Chan and myself were there, for me it was two years and seven months, for Chan, 18 months. Those were dark times. We have suffered in Kepayan, we can forgive, not forget.' That Usno-led period in Sabah was labelled as Sabah's 'dark ages'. If you can read Chinese, Chan's book has documented juicy accounts of that datk age from a top-dog journalist. In a post-book launch interview, Chan said he was never told the reason why he was detained. Here is the rest of the interview: Daily Express: What's the reason behind your detention? Chan: Why I was arrested and detained, they did not give reason. Many of those arrested and detained in Kepayan asked why they were arrested and detained, they also did not know for what reason. There were some natives there, although there were a few who were really politically obvious, one is Datuk Yap Pak Leong and several others I could figure out politics must be the reason but there were natives from Kudat who looked like simple kampong folks arrested and detained. They themselves were also baffled why. My guess is the possibility of some explosive kampong discontent. DE: In your case, you also did not know why? Chan: Like me, the reason could the stream of reports we published on Independents opposed to ruling Sabah Alliance (led by Usno) , we did our best to report but is still don't know the precise reason but if you think about it, if not because of those reports, what else? DE: The problem is the reporting? Chan: Yes, but we just reported the political activities by a few individuals, such as Chong Thien Vun who went to Sandakan to mount public political campaigns, we just reported them as what journalist do – reported what's there. DE: What's your arrest and detention like? Chan: What's inside like is in my book, you go in, it's like going into a police station, the night we were detained, we were brought to detention room in the police station. The usual practice is take off your clothes, trousers except your underwear, and then put in a room that can accommodate five to six persons, that's the first step in Sandakan on the night of arrest. We were put into the detention room, for about a week, and then transferred to the Kampung Sim Sim prison where we spent one month, after which they flew us by plane to Kota Kinabalu and driven into the Kepayan Detention Centre. DE: What's the inside like at Kepayan? Chan: There were about 20 of us detained in one big block, there were Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, all detained together, including a few Chinese, a few Kadazans and a few Bajaus. That's Kepayan. From that time, you could be detained one year or two years and after that they had the power to continue to detain you, depending on the political decision. DE: How was life in detention? Chan: Like normal, two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, after that, talk, sleep. If you don't want to be confined, you can apply to come out to work in a factory, you can choose what work you want, such as carpentry, drawing or others. You work until afternoon. Sometimes you can be out to exercise, play games, like volleyball, looks like free but within the confines of the detention centre. DE: What does your heart say about today's book launch? Chan: Originally, I thought this would be just a passing event but later on got so moved when I saw the crowd who packed the room, buy the book and kept me very busy autographing for them. That sort of surprise… respect for a mere journalist was eye-opening and it touched me. DE: You are 90 now, what's your secret? Chan: Nothing special, no special supplementary extras to prop up wellness. DE: How did you manage to remember 60 years of your career? Chan: Some parts I wrote from memory supplemented by 50pc from a search for facts by going back to some published clips I had cut out and filed, the Sabah Archive keep newspapers but anything before 1963 they don't have.