A prisoner (2006)

I went to Kota Kinabalu (KK), the capital of Sabah on 11 September 2006. On the third day of my trip, Mrs Goh’s husband, Mr Lu brought me to the main prison centre of KK to visit a prisoner.

While we came to the front door, we had to wait for around 20 minutes before we could go into a special room to meet the prisoner that we asked for. Mr Lu is a community worker on caring the prisoners that have nobody to turn out to visit them. He visits these prisoners once a month because the prisoners could only meet their friends or relatives once a month. Before we went to the special meeting room, a policewoman asked us to put our hand phones in a locker.

When we entered the special room, I saw a large rectangular thick glass in the middle of the room with two long tables and chairs on both sides. Besides a layer of glass, there is an another layer of ironic gate to separate us from the prisoner. We talked to the prisoner with small holes on the glass. “This is Peter Lim!” Mr Lu introduced the prisoner to me. Peter Lim smiled at me and his smiling melted down the separating layers. “We only have 30 minutes!” Mr Lu informed me.

At the beginning, Mr Lu talked to Peter Lim and asked about his needs. I listened to them quietly. After around 15 minutes, Mr Lu gave me some time to chat with Peter Lim personally. Peter Lim was so friendly and he answered all my questions carefully. Moreover, he told me about his past story in Taiwan and the reason for one of his fingers was cut down by a gangster of bad company over there. After coming back to Sabah, he went to rob a jewellery shop with a hand gun. Unfortunately, he fired a shot and did hurt someone in the robbery. He was caught by the police and he has been in the jail for more than 10 years.

Peter Lim said, “A person should never ever make a ‘mistake’ in life. You will be regret for you sin and lose your freedom. Also, you will lose your youth years.”