身陷囹圄

Sean Turnell是澳洲經濟學家, 曾在儲備銀行任職, Macquarie U名譽教授, 也曾在2016至2021年間為昂山素姬出謀獻策, 出任經濟顧問, 因此惹禍上身, 軍隊政變後Turnell被拘禁, 被指控違反國家機密法, 審訊後被定罪判監3年, 扣押650天後獲特赦, 然後被驅逐出境, 回到悉尼後寫了An Unlikely Prisoner 一書, 描述在拘押及服刑的獄中生活。小女兒的同事原藉緬甸, 送了這親簽書給她作為聖誕禮物, 我剛看完A Fatal Encounter in Tuscany, 節奏太慢, 不是味兒, 所以換下口味看Turnell這獄後重生的書。

這種落後極權國家治下, 身陷囹圄的政治犯, 雖然是老外, 當然不能期望得到款待,  Turnell描述在被盤問期間的情況:

Psychological maltreatment and poor conditions were the principal methods exerted by my interrogators, but every now and then they would resort to physical abuse too. It was nothing compared to that routinely dished out to my Myanmar friends, but it was shocking and terrible to me. (p.27)

對老外沒有款待也有點優待了。在收押期間, 可以看到一些家人及朋友送去的書, 也可以收到寄去的食物。每月可以跟澳洲大使館職員及妻子視像談話幾次, 一天放風幾小時, 可以跟囚友傾談, 有被收押的台灣毒販甚至可安裝電視。

前身是英國殖民地的緬甸, 也保存不少殖民地法律, 但審訊方法是那一套就不清楚了, 可以看到的是快捷的裁決, Turnell不斷說是kangaroo court。

...The irony of the use of British colonial laws by a regime steeped in xenophobia and founded in illegality and illegitimacy did not escape me. (p.122)

這種情況其實見怪不怪。囚犯也發起消極對抗:

The young political prisoners mounted a succession of collective protests that drew strength from their numbers. One of these, enacted throughout all of Myanmar's jails and beyond, was the 'silent strike'...idea that prisoners would stay silent all day, regardless of anything going on around them, any instruction issued, any questions asked. (p.170)

重新過活都面對一連串適應問題,  其中一樣是學在黑暗中睡覺:
 

Sleep (that is, the lack thereof) has been one of my biggest health problems since my release. One of the first things I had to do was to try to relearn sleeping in the dark. The lights of my cells (electricity permitting!) had been on 24 hours a day. Throughout much of my imprisonment I'd worn eye-masks of the sort you get on a plane, and I'd got used to the gentle pressure they applied to your eyelids....(pp. 259-260)

用"electricity permitting"來描述, 是因為緬甸時常停電, 停電的時候囚室就不會24小時亮燈。Permit這動詞作為一個phrase裏的用法要用gerund, 而不是permits, 很多人都用錯的。連blinker都可以用, 虐待得有點人道呢,  又或者是對老外的優待, 甚或是這落後的極權軍政府連虐待也使得不靈光麻利。

下一本要看的還是英文書, 一本冷戰時代的KGB小說。世情太坎苛, 書中尋慰藉。