I don't know him personally. He was just someone in the opposition, someone called to the Malaysian Anti-corruption Commission to assist them in their investigation of allegations of misappropriation of state funds by state executives.
He went in good health and he ended up a dead broken man at the side of the MACC building.
The world and I know him now as a certain Teoh Beng Hock.
Images show not a tough hardened individual but a friendly, slim and slightly diminutive person.
One small Malaysian, a David without a sling vs. an ugly huge Goliath, a massive institution with powers to detain and God knows to torture, perhaps mentally - formed to supposedly fight corruption, but at the time of Teoh's death, appeared obscenely fixated in catching 'ikan kecil' - small fries who were in the opposition, opposing the government, who were alleged to have squirreled off a few thousand dollars.
Never mind that millions of dollars have appeared to be skimmed by others, likely politically prominent, in the other scandals involving military hardware, a port and a public servant's grand mansion, amongst others?
A Malaysian lost his life under mysterious circumstances: he was not a suspect yet interrogated for a prolonged 11-hour period from 5 pm till 3:45 am and the fact that he was to be married the next day to a career woman bearing their baby ...
Nothing short of a Royal Commission of Inquiry, and one with highly respected objective and fair-minded persons is called for. It must be thorough and leave no stones unturned in finding the truth of what actually transpired. Need we say we have to bear in mind, if the top man in police uniform in Malaysia Rahim Noor could turn into Mohd Ali in punching a hapless detainee, Anwar Ibrahim, could not another individual in uniform be equally sadistic and even more violent?
Failing that, in my book, I respect the government less and to me, the MACC is not worthy to be respected as a just body in the fight against crime.
I blog this in outrage, coming from a life member of the ruling National Front coalition, someone who will soon publicly burn the life membership card in disgust with the current state of political events.
No comments:
Post a Comment