The following is a good commentary and observation by Kim Quek.
Notice the characters and the subjects:
a) Character of Police - slow in action and suppressing vital info
b) Character of MACC - secretive and trying to avoid responsibility
c) Teoh Beng Hock's Mobile Phone - remained 'invisible' until day 4
d) Room at 14th floor - Details remain undisclosed
e) CCTV records - was taken only on day 4
Article taken from: http://en.suarakeadilan.com/top-story-1/2009/07/12359
A Royal Commission of Deception
Friday, 24 July 2009
By Kim Quek
Prime Minister Najib Razak has finally announced the setting up of a
Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to assuage the nation’s anger
over the tragic death of Teoh Beng Hock in the hands of the
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
But what a let down, and what a deception!
Instead of probing the death of Teoh, the Commission is asked to
look into the interrogation methods of the MACC.
The absurdity of this move is akin to a school boy caned to death in
a school, and the public inquiry is over the disciplinary procedure
of the school, not over how and why the boy met his death.
The injustice that befell Teoh Beng Hock – a clear victim of
political persecution – has infuriated the nation to boiling
point, and yet Najib thinks that an RCI looking into MACC’s
methodology would be sufficient to douse the anger and restore
confidence in his leadership.
What does he take Malaysians for? A bunch of dimwits?
Oh ya, I know what they will say, concurrent with this RCI is an
inquest where a magistrate would look into the cause of death. But
any one familiar with legal practice can tell you that comparing an
inquest to a RCI is like a child vs an adult.
An RCI is commissioned by the King, and it is usually made up of
senior members of society with distinguished records of competence
and integrity, and having wide power to summon for witnesses and
evidence, and reporting to the King; whereas an inquest is manned by
a junior legal officer whose source of evidence is limited to
feedings from the authorities (mainly police) with no power to call
for witnesses and other evidences, and forwarding the findings to
the attorney general.
Since an RCI is going to be set up in response to public demand to
uncover the truth pertaining to Teoh’s death, why create another
junior body to take away the principal task – finding out how and
why Teoh died – leaving RCI to do a side show?
Besides, without allowing RCI to probe into the death, how could it
fathom what has gone wrong with the operations of MACC’s? In fact
these two tasks are integral and inseparable.
Only when the full circumstances surrounding the death are
ascertained, can the defects of the system be defined and
recommendations made.
Umno’s intentional hide-and-seek
hideandseek1This is plain common sense, and I can’t imagine a man
of Najib’s intelligence cannot comprehend it. That leaves us with
no alternative but to conclude that the UMNO leadership is playing a
game of hide and seek with the public with respect to this tragedy.
Najib said “the government will do whatever that is necessary to
find the truth” and Inspector General Musa Hassan has repeatedly
warned the public not to speculate and hurl accusations but to trust
the police to carry out a “transparent and professional”
investigation, but what has transpired is contrary to these
assertions.
The police investigations in particular have been shockingly
questionable and unprofessional.
It should be plain from day 1 of the discovery of the body (July 16
) that Teoh died while under custody and he fell from the window of
the MACC’s 14 floor office.
That he was never released was verified by his personal articles
including his hand phone which were still being kept by MACC when
the body was found and the fact that he could not have walked off
the office on his own as implied by MACC as he did not have the
electronic card to open the door.
That he fell through the office window was evidenced from the 14th
floor window latch which was found next to Teoh’s body.
Questions Galore
Then why didn’t the police seal the office, seize all
relevant documents including notes of interrogation, dust for finger
prints particularly those at the window on the very first day (July
16), as death by foul means clearly could not be excluded.
Despite evidence of Teoh’s fall from the building while under
custody, why did Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar say that he
did not suspect foul play and classified the case as “sudden
death” – even before autopsy was performed? Didn’t this
presumption betray patronization of a fellow law-enforcing agency?
Why did the police forensics personnel visited the crime scene only
on Day 4 (July 19) to take evidence, removing articles such as
documents, CCTV records, window latch etc, knowing that vital clues
could have been erased, tampered with or removed in the intervening
3 days? Didn’t this reflect a lack of seriousness?
Why did the police deny repeatedly to assemblyman Ronnie Liu until
day 4 that it had Teoh’s hand phone, when in fact the phone has
been in its possession since day 1? What was the police secretly
keeping the phone for so many days for?
The body was discovered at 1:30 pm and Teoh’s boss assemblyman Ean
Yong Hian Wah arrived at the MACC office at 5 pm asking to see Teoh,
but the personnel therein including Selangor police chief Khalid Abu
Bakar did not entertain Ean Yong for more than an hour.
Why keep the news from Ean Yong for so long? Why wasn’t Teoh’s
family informed in the first instant? Was this long duration of
silence a needed interval to complete certain preparatory work
before the bad news was announced to the world? Shouldn’t such
improper conduct give rise to suspicious imputations?
The autopsy was completed on day 2 (July 17), why is the police
still keeping the findings under lid?
As for MACC, questions galore that suggest criminal liability over
Teoh’s death in the backdrop of a political conspiracy to sabotage
the Selangor Pakatan state government with corruption prosecutions.
Examples of these are:
1. Why did director of investigations Shukri Abdul lie that Teoh was
released at 3:45 am and that he had no idea how Teoh’s body landed
on the fifth floor balcony, when in fact Teoh was never released and
he fell off a window in the office? Was there a necessity to lie if
there was no criminal liability on the part of MACC?
2. Why was Teoh tortured in a marathon interrogation that stretched
into the early hours of morning when he was not a criminal suspect
but only a witness assisting in an investigation over a hearsay
allegation of misappropriation of a paltry RM 2,400 by his boss Ean
Yong?
Ean Yong was among a group of seven Pakatan assemblymen selected for
investigation for unspecified suspicion of miss-using their annual
allocations of half a million ringgit each. In contrast, Pakatan
complaints against BN assemblymen for having dubiously spent their
entire annual allocations within the short period of two months
shortly before the last election in Mar 8, 08 have been met with
silence for more than a year.
3. Why have Pakatan leaders been systematically hounded over dubious
petty allegations while MACC routinely playing deaf and dumb over
multi-million and even multi-billion scandals of corruption and
abuse of power by Barisan Nasional leaders?
Why keep silent over the RM 12.5 billion PKFZ scandal despite having
received numerous reports of complaints from Pakatan since 2004?
Why took no notice over the recently exposed mansion of former
Selangor Menteri Besar Khir Toyo reputedly worth RM 24 million which
was well beyond his accumulated official income?
Why took no action on Khir for the numerous reports of corruption
and abuse of power uncovered by the Pakatan state government since
the last election?
It is as clear as day light that MACC exists not to wipe out
corruption, but to wipe out Pakatan Rakyat – not only in Selangor
but all over the country.
It is in the realization of this despicable role played by MACC,
that the tragic death of an upright and dedicated young man – who
was due to get married on the day his life was so cruelly snuffed
out – has caused the tolerance of the nation to touch its breaking
point.
Let us resolve that the fascist power be not tolerated henceforth.
Let us all stand up for justice for Teoh Beng Hock.
.
[Kim Quek aka Yong Thye Chong is a well-respected political
commentator and author]
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