The Kamunting Detention Centre (KEMTA; ms, Kem Tahanan Perlindungan Kamunting) is a prison camp in

Kamunting Kamunting (Malay phonology, Malay pronunciation: /Kemunting/) is a town in Larut, Matang and Selama District, Perak, Malaysia. It is the biggest satellite town of Taiping, Perak, Taiping. During the Malayan Emergency between 1948 and 1960, Kamunt ...

Larut, Matang and Selama District The Larut, Matang and Selama District is a district of Perak, Malaysia. Taiping is the capital town of this district. Larut, Matang and Selama used to be three small different districts and they merged into one larger district later. Larut, M ...

, Perak,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

.Tempat Tahanan Perlindungan
prison.gov.my The prison is used by the government to detain and interrogate persons arrested under the

Internal Security Act Internal Security Act may refer to: * Internal Security Act 1960, former Malaysian law *Internal Security Act (Singapore) * McCarran Internal Security Act, a United States federal law *Suppression of Communism Act, 1950, a South African law, rename ...

(ISA). The detention is also known as Malaysia's Supermax prison or Maximum security prison. It is alleged that this is the site where the Malaysian authorities would hold up

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s. Among notable events which prompted widespread use of the ISA were

Operation Lalang Operation Lalang ( ms, Operasi Lalang, also referred as Ops Lalang and taken to mean "Weeding Operation" or "Operation Weeding") was a major crackdown between 27 October and 20 November 1987 undertaken by the Royal Malaysian Police, ostensibl ...

in 1987 and the years during the Reformasi movement, beginning 1999. The centre has also been used to detain other groups of people declared by the government to be a threat to national security such as terrorists and cults. Some notable groups detained in Kamunting includes the Al-Arqam cult and the

Al-Ma'unah The Al-Ma'unah was a spiritual Islamist militant group based in Malaysia. The group was made famous by their audacious raid on 2 July 2000 on a camp of Malaysian Army Reserve (Mobilised) in the early hours of the morning and stealing weapons fro ...

terrorist group.

Population statistics

Notable ex-detainees

* James Wong - Federal opposition leader from Sarawak in 1974 * Anwar Ibrahim - Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister. *

Lim Kit Siang Lim Kit Siang (; born 20 February 1941) is a Malaysian politician. He is the longest-serving leader of the opposition in Malaysia, having held the position for a total of 29 years on three separate occasions. He is also former Secretary-Genera ...

- Opposition leader *

Jeffrey Kitingan Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan (born 22 October 1948) is Malaysian politician. He served as the Deputy Chief Minister II of Sabah from 2020 to 2023 and State Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries since 2020 (also served in the same position for a ...

- Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah *

Karpal Singh Dato' Seri Utama Karpal Singh s/o Ram Singh Deo ( pa, ਕਰਪਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ, Karpāl Siṅgh; 28 June 1940 – 17 April 2014) was an Indian Malaysian politician and lawyer. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bu ...

- Opposition leader * Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj - Parti Sosialis Malaysia leader *

Lim Guan Eng Lim Guan Eng (; born 8 December 1960) is a Malaysian politician and accountant from the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bagan, Member of t ...

- former

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

Mohamad Sabu Mohamad bin Sabu ( Jawi: محمد بن سابو), commonly known as Mat Sabu, is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibr ...

- former Defence Minister *

Teresa Kok Teresa Kok Suh Sim (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Kwo̍k Su-tshim''; born 31 March 1964) is a Malaysian politician who served as the Minister of Primary Industries in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ...

- former Primary Industry Minister *

Tuang Pik King Tuang Pik King is a Malaysian civil and minority rights activist and educator from Perak who was detained in the Kamunting Detention Centre Prison during Operation Lalang in the late 1980s along with Mohamad Sabu, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, ...

- Civil rights activist

References

{{reflist Prisons in Malaysia Buildings and structures in Perak 1973 establishments in Malaysia Politics of Malaysia Terrorism in Malaysia Islamism in Malaysia Communism in Malaysia Larut, Matang and Selama District