The local news reported on the Singapore Terror Suspect caught in Jakarta.
BEHIND the rusty, discoloured white bars of the South Jakarta district court lock-up, Mohammad Hassan Saynudin paced like caged tiger at a zoo; at times edgy, at times calm as he sat, with wide, wild eyes hinting at a capacity for terror.
He was the focus of curiosity.
At first, he was strangely cheerful, basking in the intense attention of the media.
And I was intrigued.
The cell which holds Mohd Hassan and the nine other suspects is about half the size of a HDB flat's master-bedroom.
It is spartan - a bench and doorless toilet blocked from public view by a pillar. It is a far cry from the comfortable HDB flat he once shared with his parents, wife and children in Yishun.
Yet he seemed at ease. I enquired, as any Singaporean would of a fellow-Singaporean in a crisis: How are you faring?
Immediately, he gave the thumbs up. 'Good', he replied cheerfully.
I thought it odd that he would react with such bravado, since the charges this Singaporean is facing - for plotting and committing terrorist acts - are grave.
If found guilty, he would face the firing squad. For a man grappling with the prospect of violent death at 35, he was strangely nonchalant.
Neither the prospect of the ultimate punishment, nor the murderous intentions for which he would have to disprove, seemed to faze him.
Was it bravado? A false front?
On the surface, he looked the part of the pious: Long robe, a turban, flowing beard. On his forehead, he bore the mark of the faithful: A noticeable dent from years of pressing it hard to the floor during prayers.
Why aren't you wearing a veil, he asked me in a disapproving tone.
Was he what he seemed? First impressions are often flimsy. Delve deeper and the picture of confidence becomes distorted with contradictions, as I discovered after the snatches of conversation I had with him while waiting four hours at the court for his trial to begin.
Peer into his soul and the owl-like, wide, black eyeliner-penciled eyes betray a schizophrenia - a yearning to be revered, at times remorseless and remorseful, and defiant despite being reviled...
 LEADER: Mohd Hassan's (third from left) cellmates seemed to accept tha the would be their spokesman, that people would talk to him. |
REVERED?
HE projected a commanding presence.
He was a picture of contrast to the other nine Indonesians who shared the same cell. They were quiet and subdued. Some seemed lost in their thoughts.
But Mohd Hassan, or Fajar Taslim as he is known among Indonesians, was chatty. He bantered and joked with the media, including myself.
Why so cheerful, I asked.
His instant reply: 'I have to put up a front for everyone here. I'm trying to keep up the spirit among everyone. If I'm sad, they will be sad too.'
He seemed to revel in his bravado, acting as if he were their leader.
Surely, I told him, they know for themselves how serious these charges are and are reacting as they feel.
He retorted: 'We're not scared. I can speak for all of us. We would die with honour...'
He added, after a pause: 'We're not afraid of facing whatever comes. I will survive this, just as I have survived the seven years in Palembang, some days without food.'
He was referring to his nomad-like existence, moving every four months because, he claimed, he disliked the neighbours.
He added: 'In hijrah (migration), God will give you sustenance.'
It was not his answer that troubled me, but a misplaced sense of pride and defiance.
From each answer, a picture began to emerge of a man who seems hardened in his beliefs, and deluded into believing that he is revered.
Even in the cell, Mohd Hassan seemed like a leader.
His cellmates seemed to accept that he would be their spokesman, that people would talk to him. Some looked on with interest while others were content in their own quiet conversation. One read a paper, and another played with a cat that sauntered into the cell.
The media - about 50-strong - gravitated towards the Singaporean. And he entertained them even as he ate his nasi rames, a packet of mixed rice.
Perhaps it was his ability to switch easily from English to Bahasa Indonesia.
Perhaps it was his wit - he told photographer Mohd Ishak he would let his picture be taken 'only if this is appearing on front page, okay?'.
 "We're not guilty, we just have a different ideology... Guilt is relative. We want a peaceful resolution. -Mohd Hassan |
REMORSELESS
THROUGHOUT my visit, he showed little remorse for what he is accused of doing. That includes plotting to kill fellow-Singaporeans like myself in terrorist attacks under the Jemiah Islamiah terrorist banner.
A fugitive from Singapore, he had been caught last July in the south Sumatran capital of Palembang where he and his nine cellmates were found in their rented house with home-made explosives.
They are also alleged to have been part of a team planning to bomb a cafe popular with foreigners in Bukittingi, a West Sumatran town.
But that day in November 2007, they had quickly disarmed the bomb when they saw many Muslim workers in headscarves in Cafe Bedudel.
Mohd Hassan is said to be a member of the Singapore JI chapter headed by fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari since 1999.
He was accused, among other things, of training in Afghanistan for five months with Al-Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden.
And he had been advised by Riduan Isamuddin, a Jemaah Islamiah (JI) leader better known as Hambali - to, intensify training for his beliefs.
Was he guilty as charged? Was he remorseful?
He chose to debate the use of the word 'guilt'.
'We're not guilty, we just have a different ideology... Guilt is relative. We want a peaceful resolution.'
Other than plotting terror attacks, he and his compatriots had allegedly killed secondary schoolteacher Dago Simamora when she disallowed a student to don the tudung.
Why do you call it a peaceful resolution if you resort to violence and murder?
Firmly, he said Muslims are being persecuted. So if you are given 'one slap, and again, and again, you can't just ignore it'.
Again, how is that peaceful?
His lips curled into a slight smile. 'It's the process you have to go through before you achieve peace.'
Again, how can this can be justified?
He shot back: 'It's like when a husband and wife are quarrelling... All these skirmishes you have to go through before you achieve peace.'
I was incredulous.
Earlier, he had lightly told a few journalists that the bombs found with them in Palembang were 'just firecrackers'.
'Those are not bombs; those are just firecrackers compared to the ones used in Bali,' he said, referring to the 2002 Bali blasts which killed more than 200 people including Muslims.
Mohd Hassan then interrupted my thoughts: 'The others here (in the cell) are wondering why is it, if you are an Indian Muslim, you are not wearing a veil. They know me, an Indian Muslim, to be staunch.
'I hope you get married quickly and wear a veil.'
 "There's a kind of remorse seeing my parents as they are old... I should have been helping them." -Mohd Hassan, on meeting parents for the first time in 7 years since he left S'pore. |
REMORSEFUL
MIDWAY through our conversation, a group of reporters and photographers converged on him.
Cameras flashed and microphones were shoved to his face. He quickly told them jokingly: 'I'm not a celebrity, please... I am not going to answer everything.'
This was the closest he came to the ordinary Fajar Taslim, a family man to those who knew him in Palembang.
Gone was the defiance. His expression softened. When he saw his parents, he said: 'I was speechless. I couldn't talk to them for a long time.
'We spoke with our eyes,' he said, referring to how he cried seeing his parents for the first time in seven years since he left Singapore.
He said: 'I didn't do anything when I moved to Palembang. I was lying low.'
Asked if he had any regrets, he said: 'There's a kind of remorse seeing my parents as they are old. My father is 75 and my mother is 86 and they have no one to take care of them... I should have been helping them.
'I plead with the Singapore Government to release my brother Mohd Hussain, as he has done nothing wrong, so he can take care of my parents.'
His brother has been detained under the Internal Security Act after being nabbed nearly two years ago.
Mohd Hussain had left Singapore to pursue Arabic studies overseas in August 2001 but later went for terrorist training conducted by the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group in Pakistan.
His name was mentioned as an as an accomplice in the 'militant jihad' plans of self-radicalised Singapore law graduate Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader.
As Mohd Hassan spoke about his family, his eyes seemed to glisten, and he paused, as if holding back the tears.
Looking straight into a television camera, he said: 'I regret not being able to look after my children.'
He has four children, 11 to 6 years old, from a first marriage, and three from a second marriage to a Javanese wife, including a newborn of 11/2months he saw only last week.
He said he misses the children from his first marriage whom he had not seen since 2002, when his first wife left him while he was in Palembang.
'I'm not asking for custody, I'm in custody. I just want to see them and take their photos in remembrance.'
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REVILED
THE Indonesian journalists, hardened from reporting about terrorist attacks, weren't sympathetic.
They were blunt. What do you NOT regret, asked one reporter, bent on exposing the ruthless side of this self-professed filial son.
Mohd Hussain gave a cold hard look, thought for moment, and replied: 'I do not regret things that I have done which are in accordance with the rules of Islam.'
Just then, one journalist asked him to speak in Bahasa, and his humour returned. He teased them and said 'campur campur, dong (I will speak in mixed languages).'
Later, as the journalists dispersed, and he saw some drinking coffee, he told photographer Mohd Ishak and I that it has been a while since he tasted good 'teh tarik'. He added, with a chuckle: 'Eh, later, we'll go to a teh sarabat stall, okay?'
As we bantered, I asked about his height - he said he was over 1.8m - and whether he played basketball. He shook his head vigorously and insisted that football is his thing.
Then he began to talk avidly about the Singapore team he knew, and recalled names such as goalkeeper David Lee, striker V Sundramoorthy, and others like Malek Awab, Kadir Yahya.
Later, as the suspects made their entrance in court, the more than 50 members of the media there surged forward and started snapping pictures of Mohd Hassan.
Why the intense interest in the case?
One said it was mainly because of the Singaporean, the only foreigner among the 10 to be charged.
As the prosecutors read the 55-page dossier of charges, a process which took about 50 minutes, I asked an Indonesian journalist how he felt about the charges.
He added: 'As a Muslim, the killing of innocent lives in the name of religion is so wrong. Us Muslims in Indonesia, we know this (hate ideology) is all rubbish.'
The other terrorists
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| OSAMA BIN LADEN Mohammad Hassan also known as Fajar Taslim, met him in Afghanistan when he went there for training around 2000. He left Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in the US. | HAMBALI One of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) leaders who helped plan the Bali bombings in 2002 that killed 202 people. Mohd Hassan acted as a courier between him & Osama bin Laden. | MAS SELAMAT Mohd Hassan said he & now-fugitive JI member Mas Selamat had planned to hijack a plan in Bangkok & crash it into Changi Airport. "We wanted to do it out of anger with Singapore for being an ally of the US for what it did in Afghanistan," he said. |
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| AZAHARI HUSIN Prosecutors allege Mohd Hassan was an accomplice of notorious bombmaker Azahari, who was shot dead by police in November 2005. Azahari also helped mastermind the 2002 Bali bombings & subsequent attacks in Indonesia. | Brother Mohamed Hussain Saynudin Hussain left S'pore in August 2001 for Arabic studies & later trained with the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba militant group in Pakistan, the same group blamed for the Mumbai blasts. The Government said last year that he abetted Singaporean law lecturer Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader in his plans for armed jihad. Both were detained in Feb 2007. | Mohammad Hassan Saynudin |
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