Syamil: 15 years old Stateless Child

Hi, I'm Syamil, I'm 14 years old, I live in Bandar Ramai-Ramai.

I want to tell you about my experience of being arrested by the police. When I was little, my family and I had to hid in the forest because there was an operation that night, so we walked quickly to the forest because we lived in a wooden house near the forest. We were already gone when the police arrived. The police disassembled our house one by one, but they didn't look for us since we were hiding in the forest, not in the house; ultimately, the police came out of our village because we weren't there, so we went out of the jungle and went home.

One day, my father was working at Batu 6 restaurant. That time, I heard my father was arrested at his workplace. My mother immediately hurried to my father's workplace after hearing the news. She was worried about how my father was doing. My mother later returned, and he was arrested there. I cried because my father was arrested by the police, we visited him in detention (editor: at the Temporary Detention Centre) after a few months, and when we returned home, there was a roadblock that time we got back on the bus, so the police stopped whenever a bus passing by. Later, the bus we boarded was detained because they wanted to ask the passengers if they had documents or identification card.

The police that was with my mother said, if your son (me) does not go with you, you will be taken to Sibuga (where Sandakan Prison is located) but I do not want to, so I have to go so that my mother is not taken to Sibuga because in Sibuga, she will be forced to do heavy work. I had to go, because I have no choice. Then we were taken to the Red House (Temporary Detention Center) and we were detained there.

Hai, aku syamil, umur ku 14 tahun, aku tinggal di Bandar Ramai-Ramai. Aku mau bercerita pengalaman aku ditangkap polis. Masa aku kecil aku sama keluarga ku mau bertapuk (1) di hutan sebab malam tu ada operasi (2), jadi kami jalan cepat-cepat ke hutan sebab kami tinggal di rumah kayu dekat dengan hutan, sebelum polis sampai ke kampung kami, kami tiada sudah di situ, semua polis² itu membongkar rumah kami satu persatu tapi semua polis tu nda (3) jumpa kami sebab kami bertapuk di hutan bukan di dalam rumah akhir nya polis² tu keluar dari kampung kami sebab kami tiada di situ jadi kami pun keluar dari hutan dan pulang ke rumah masing-masing.

Pada suatu hari pula, bapa ku bekerja di restoran batu 6 jadi aku ada dengar khabar yang bapa ku di tangkap di tempat kerjanya. Habis aku dengar berita tu mamaku terus ke tempat kerja bapa ku dia mau tengok keadaan bapa ku lepas itu mama ku balik dia di tangkap di situ. Aku menangis sebab bapa ku di tangkap polis, selepas beberapa bulan kami melawat bapa ku di tahan (editor: di Pusat Tahanan Sementara) dan selepas kami balik dari ke rumah, di tengah perjalanan kami ada roadblock (4) masa tu kami balik naik bas, jadi polis tu dorang (5) tahan kalau ada bas yang lalu, jadi bas yang kami naik itu ditahan sebab mau (6) ditanya penumpang nya ada dokumen atau pun IC. Bilang (7) polis tu sama mamaku kalau anak mu nda ikut sama kau, kau dibawa ke sibuga (editor: tempat terletaknya Penjara Sandakan) tapi aku nda mau jadi aku mesti ikut supaya mamaku nda dibawa ke sibuga sebab di sibuga kerja di sana berat-berat. Aku mesti ikut, terus kami di bawa ke rumah merah (Pusat Tahanan Sementara) dan kami pun ditahan di situ.

Glosari:

(1) bertapuk> bersembunyi

(2) operasi> Ops oleh pihak berkuasa

(3) nda> tidak

(4) roadblock> Pemeriksaan Polis

(5) dorang> mereka

(6) mau> mahu

(7) bilang> berkata