Krisis Tebusan Penjara Pudu (1986-10)

• Penjara Pudu Selepas Merdeka (1957-1996)

“In Oct 17, 1986, the nation was rocked by a six-day riot and hostage situation at the prison. The Pudu prison siege was led by the notorious Jimmy Chua Chap Seng, a former policeman from Singapore who was detained on a murder charge. Chua managed to convince five other inmates to join him in his plan to escape from jail, taking advantage of a routine medical check-up at the clinic in the building. In the incident, they seized and held two members of the prison staff hostage for six days. However, no death from the riot was reported and the hostages were rescued. Chua and the five other inmates met their end at the hangman's noose there.” (Esther Landau @ New Straits Times: August 20, 2020: |"NST175: For 100 years a city landmark").

“In 1986, a routine medical check-up in the prison went awry when an inmate named Jimmy Chu and five fellow inmates took a doctor and his assistant hostage. Chu, a former policeman, threatened to kill the hostages if not provided with a getaway car and a meeting with the deputy Home Affairs Minister, Megat Junid. Initially unwilling to take a heavy-handed approach to the situation, the police brought in the inmates’ family members to convince them to surrender. Eventually, one inmate relented and allowed police commandos into the clinic, with the cops subduing the gang while rescuing the hostages. For their crimes of kidnapping, the inmates were sentenced to death by hanging, with the gang meeting their end on Oct 10, 1989.”

“Curious members of the public gather outside Pudu Jail during the hostage situation of 1986. (National Archives footage)”

Pengalaman pelakon Abu Bakar Juah, yang pernah bertugas di Penjara Pudu dari tahun 1975 hingga 1986: “Having worked in Pudu Prison for 11 years from 1975 to 1986, actor and former prison director of Taiping Prison, Abu Bakar Juah, has many memories of the place. … He recalls an incident in 1986 when a group of six prisoners led by Jimmy Chuah took Dr Radzi Jaafar and Dr Abdul Aziz Majid hostage, and held them for six days. “I was at the prison workshop that day when I received a call from the director. Without explaining, he told me to close it up and return all the inmates to their room,” he relates. It was a little later that he was told of what had transpired, and he was asked to be the liaison between the Prisons Department and the Police. He remembers that it was a very trying situation and he did not manage to get any sleep over the next two days. He also says that it was Datuk Ibrahim Mohamed, the director-general of Prisons at that time, who insisted that no firearms should be used, so the rescue team only used batons. As a result, there were no fatalities.” (D. RAJ and JOSEPH LOH @ The Star, 27 Jun 2010: |"If the prison walls could talk").

“The Pudu Prison siege began on October 17, 1986, when the inmates in question rushed a prison clinic, taking hostage a doctor and a laboratory technician using improvised shanks. For nearly six tense days, the desperados held the medics to ransom in the former British colonial gaol, demanding their own release along with getaway cars and cash. The ringleader was one Jimmy Chua (pictured at right), a former policeman turned gangland figure who had been detained on a murder charge; accomplices Ng Lai Huat, Sin Ah Lau , Lam Hock Sung, Yap Chee Keong, and Phang Boon Ho were all in prison on various firearms violations. The intrinsic impossibility of their position was underscored over the course of the siege, as Kuala Lumpur gawkers began to join the armed soldiery surrounding the jail: the prisoners who had made themselves centers of attention did not dare trust food sent by the guards, eating only the dwindling provisions that were left on hand at the time of their clinic attack. So how exactly were they ever going to come to an endgame where they would trust assurances to walk out the gates to a mystery car? This distant hypothetical never crested the horizon, because with the help of a signal from another inmate, Malaysian special forces were able to slip into the facility while the prisoners’ guard was down and take the lot by storm, unharmed and without firing a shot. That meant everyone was around to face trial for kidnapping, which just so happened to carry a maximum sentence of death by hanging despite the absence of a fatality.” (Headsman @ ExecutedToday.com, October 10th, 2017: |"1989: Jimmy Chua and his Pudu Prison siege accomplices").

LATAR PERISTIWA: Wikipedia: Rusuhan Penjara Pudu

1986-10-19: Rundingan dengan ketua kumpulan, Jimmy Chua: “Usaha masih diteruskan untuk memujuk enam orang banduan yang menahan Dr Radzi Jaafar dan ahli teknologi makmal Abdul Aziz Abdul Majid sejak Jumaat lalu di klinik penjara Pudu, supaya menyerah diri. Menurut Ketua Pengarah Penjara, Datuk Ibrahim Mohammad, beliau mungkin menyerahkan pengendalian drama penawanan tebusan penjara itu kepada polis selepas jam 10.00 pagi esok. … Datuk Ibrahim bertindak sebagai orang tengah dalam rundingan dengan ketua kumpulan enam orang banduan yang terlibat, Chua Chap Seng atau Jimmy. Datuk Ibrahim yang kelihatan letih berharap banduan-banduan itu akan menyerah diri sebelum tempoh itu. Katanya, setakat ini, rundingan yang diadakan sama ada di klinik atau melalui telefon dari bilik gerakan yang ditubuhkan dalam pejabat penjara menemui kegagalan. Awal hari ini, Jimmy dan dua orang banduan lagi telah bersetuju untuk menyerah diri tanpa syarat dan memberitahu Datuk Ibrahim bahawa dia (Jimmy) akan memujuk rakan-rakannya yang lain agar berbuat demikian. Bagiamanapun, Datuk Ibrahim berkata Phang Boon Ho, 27 tahun, yang menghadapi kesalahan menyerang dan percubaan mencuri dan Yap Chee Keong, 23 tahun, yang menghadapi kesalahan kerana merusuh, masih berkeras dan Jimmy telah beberapa kali mencuba memujuk mereka supaya menyerah diri. Ditanya apakah yang akan berlaku jika banduan-banduan itu enggan menyerah diri selepas pukul 10.00 pagi esok, Datuk Ibrahim berkata beliau akan menyerahkan perkara itu kepada polis dan sebarang tindakan akan dibincangkan dengan pihak atasan. … Ketika ditanya mengapa Jimmy dan dua orang rakannya tidak menyerah diri, sedangkan mereka berhasrat berbuat demikian, Datuk Ibrahim berkata mereka memberitahunya bahawa mereka tidak akan menyerah diri melainkan ia dilakukan secara bersama.” (Berita Harian, 20 October 1986, Page 1: |"Enam banduan belum menyerah").

1986-10-23: Tuduhan Akta Menculik ke atas keenam-enam banduan yang terlibat: “Pisau dan alat-alat bedah diasah sampai tajam di hadapan mereka dan senjata-senjata itu digunakan untuk mengancam ketika mereka bercakap menerusi telefon, sedang banduan-banduan yang menawan mereka berjaga sepanjang waktu selama enam hari di klinik penjara Pudu. … Beliau (Ketua Pengarah Penjara, Datuk Ibrahim Mohamed) menambah, selepas kejadian penahanan tebusan itu, pihak berkuasa mungkin mengenakan tuduhan di bawah Akta Menculik ke atas keenam-enam banduan tersebut, yang boleh membawa kepada hukuman penjara seumur hidup atau hukuman mati.” (Berita Harian, 24 October 1986, Page 1: |"Banduan asah pisau takutkan tebusan").

Selain petikan dan sumber yang dinyatakan, rencana ini telah diusahakan oleh TMK Pulasan, di bawah kelolaan Syahrul Sazli Shaharir <sazli@pulasan.my>. Pengakuan penting: Kami bukan ahli sejarah! Sila klik di sini untuk penjelasan lanjut.