As we reported in Women in Action 1988/1 and 1988/2, four Malaysian women who have been actively working for the rights of women in their country were detained in October 1987 under the International Security Act. We are happy to print the following letter from the two of them who have been released

23 June 1988

Dear Friends:

Warmest greetings from the world of the RELEASED. It is good to be able to move "freely" again without our called "guardians" forever on our tails and barking out orders to us.

While we are glad that we have been released, even though it is conditional, we are distressed that many of our and fellow detainees continue to languish unjustly in detention without trial. The detention of the remaining two women, Heng Leng and Patricia Lourdes Irene Xavier, needs special mention because of their detention conditions.

Even when the four of us were together, we felt lonely and isolated at being confined within a limited area ringed with barbed wires and cut off from the outside world, our loved ones, family and friends. How much more intensified such must be now that there are only two of them left in the "kawasan " (confined area) with only a minimum of social contact.

As such, we have to continue our support for them and intensify our efforts at working for the release of all those continue to be detained under the Internal Security Act or ISA. Support may also be in the form of visits to the families detainees, as well as letters to the Home Minister urging him to unconditionally release all those he has detained under ISA.

We thank you for your prayers and support, both moral and otherwise, and for your efforts in securing our early as well as the support you have extended to our families during this difficult period. We know that we cannot adequately you in words for all that you have done, but we would like to say that because of your courage and because you have to succumb to fear and intimidation, you have given us hope. There is hope for our society and for the emergence of democracy, peace and justice.

Let us continue our struggle to keep and spread this ray of hope shining in the darkness of our society and may we continue to extend the same, if not greater, support to the detainees and their families. As a friend wrote us, "You don't heroic to be important to other people and the love and prayers of those who care are more important than the failures those who act out of self interest."

With sincere appreciation,

(Signed) Lim Chin Chin and Cecilia Ng

Source: Asia-Pacific Women Action Network Newsletter for Women's Struggle No. 4, July-Sept 1988 ACFOD GPO Box 2930 Bangkok 10501, Thailand

Editor's Note: We would like to inform the readers that recently, Chee Heng Leng and Patricia Lourdes Irene Xavier have been conditionally released also.