ARREST OF SAMAD ISMAIL BY MALAYSIAN AUTHORITIES

Mr N. Govindasamy asked the Minister for Home Affairs and Education to throw some light as to whether, as some people in Singapore and Malaysia believe, the Malaysian authorities' arrest of Samad Ismail, Managing Editor of New Straits Times Malaysia in June 1976, was brought about as a direct result of our arrest of Hussein Jahidin and Azmi Mahmud of Berita Harlan Singapore as they had implicated Samad Ismail.

Mr Chua Sian Chin: Sir, in December 1975 the Malaysian authorities asked us for information we had on Samad Ismail's communist activities in Singapore. Ii early January 1976 we supplied them with information from our security files on Samad lsmail. I understood that the Malaysian authorities were conducting investigations on Samad Ismail.

In February 1976 we informed the Malaysian authorities of the pro-communist activities of Hussein Jahidin and of the probable involvement of Samad Ismail. In June 1976 we informed the Malaysians of the results of the interrogation of Hussein Jahidin and Azmi Mahmud. I cannot say whether the Malaysian action was brought forward by the admissions of Hussein Jahidin and Azmi Mahmud during interrogation. What I can say is that, on common security problems, there is close cooperation between the Singapore Internal Security Department and the Malaysian Special Branch.