Please discuss
Mr Teoh Beng Hock’s death marks a watershed in the attitude of the public towards their government. The government has plumbed a new low in loss of credibility. Many people have come up to tell me in anger or despair that they feel their country has gone off the rails. People who previously considered themselves apolitical have been roused into active engagement.
There have been too many deaths under custody. But this death is particularly disturbing because Mr Teoh died after interrogation by a specially commissioned watchdog agency, inaugurated with fanfare last year by the outgoing administration. The very agency set up to combat the abuse of power has become in the public eye a symbol of the abuse of power.
Mr Teoh was a mere witness. He was questioned about the possible misuse of funds by his employer, a state assemblyman, to buy flags for the last Merdeka celebrations. The sum in question was RM2,400. He was questioned for eight hours through the night. He was found dead the following day outside the MACC’s headquarters.
Mr Teoh, 30, would have registered his marriage last weekend. His fiancée is two-months pregnant.
If the Perak debacle reminded us of the importance of the Constitution, the death under suspicious circumstances of Mr Teoh Beng Hock has brought home in a heart-wrenching way how much we need our public institutions to be independent and law-abiding. A shocked public is demanding answers, and rightly so.
Questions about how Mr Teoh died cannot be shut down with the usual warning that it is “liable to confuse the public” because the public is already confused. We are confused about how an idealistic young man with everything to live for can enter the headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as a witness one day and be found dead outside the next.
Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be swept aside with the paternalistic instruction to “leave it to the authorities to investigate,” because the death of Mr Teoh appears to be just the result of “leaving it to the authorities investigate.” It is precisely the independence of the investigating authorities that people are questioning.
Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be suppressed with the warning “not to speculate” when the investigating authorities were apparently able to prognosticate, ahead of their own investigations, that foul play was not involved, and some leaders appear to have special knowledge that Mr Teoh jumped to his death of his own accord.
Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be evaded with the low tactic of racializing the issue because the death of Mr Teoh touches us all as citizens, brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers. None of us wants to live under a government apparatus that cannot be trusted to be independent and to tell the truth.
Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be suppressed with authoritarian prohibitions because they are about the integrity and independence of institutions that belong to the people. Those ministers who talk down to the people may have forgotten who put them into government and pays their wages, and whose questions they were put there to ask. And to answer.
To ask such questions is not to “politicize” the issue but to exercise our ownership of an issue that touches each and every one of us as citizens: our basic institutions are rotted out, and we are headed down the path of a failed state.
It is our right and indeed our duty as citizens to keep asking questions when someone dies under circumstances that put the entire government under a shadow. As we ask these questions let us accept our joint responsibility to push uncompromisingly for an overhaul of the key institutions that have rotted through under exactly the kind of authoritarianism that would prohibit discussion of the circumstances of the death of Mr Teoh Beng Hock.
(Originally published in Sin Chew Daily, July 22, 2009)
Tan Sri,
You are one of the rare gem of a politician who talks with sincere conviction. I believe the rakyat sincerely hope you will keep on advocating for a better Malaysia! The points you brought up is exactly what every sane Malaysian is wanting to say. Kudos to you!
TF
teckylicious
July 22, 2009 at 9:05 am
Dear Tengku,
You have written so much in the net. But, there is nothing change. As you are still have the stanima to do something, i beg you to turn out and do something to save our loved country.
Malaysians alreday totally disappointed with current ruling part. When we imagine our government instituion, then a significant idea will pop up:-
1) PDRM – Kugan death
2) Court – Perak MB case
3) DUN – Siva dragged out illegally by “police”
4) MACC – Teoh death
5) Other government dept – coruption
Malaysia is hopeless country unless people like you will come out to fight for malaysia future.
Pls action asap.
sincere request from hopeless malaysian
voonpeen74
July 22, 2009 at 9:41 am
You know talk is cheap. Will you walk the walk and support a motion in parliament if say PR MPs decided to call a motion to urge the government not to extend IGP tenure or if PR MPs call for a Royal Commission inquiry and revamp of MACC & Police institution?
shamadz72
July 22, 2009 at 10:20 am
I can feel your outrage and anger. Every single human being I meet is angry.
But do you think the UMNO leadership cares a damn what you say?
You don’t have to join PKR but you can do SOMETHING POSITIVE.
You can use your influence to get BN MPs to walk out of BN and form a new coalition government with the existing Opposition parties.
Love your country by doing something, not just making statements.
OK. I challenge you conduct an opinion poll in your blog. Ask Malaysians if you should quit UMNO and join the Opposition. I challenge you to get our views.
WE WANT YOU TO SAVE THIS COUNTRY FOR OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE.
We will be gone soon, but what country will they inherit. Come on KULI!!!!!!
perakborn
July 22, 2009 at 10:50 am
i agree with perakborn. do it kuli! do it now! i’ll give you my support!
mlpt
July 22, 2009 at 12:44 pm
mahathir and muhyiddin seems to be locked up in a racial time warp.
Najib, if he extends IGP musa’s tenure, will be seen to be at the mercy of the IGP, who has the Najib by the balls with the C4 case. That could be one reason why the IGP is so bold and daring in the eyes of the public.
Anwar lacks quality decision making as can be seen in his support for science and maths in malay.
We need new leadership in the opposition front, as nothing can be done about those in the ruling party.
Either you or someone from sabah and sarawak (neutral in terms of race in this racially volatile country) should lead the opposition and give the people their lost voices.
sputjam
July 22, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Even if we grant MACC some benefit of doubt. Maybe there wasn’t some intentional foul play at hand (questionable, given the circumstantial evidence). Maybe Teoh did in fact fall over due to some freak accident. But the fact remains that he was probably in an extremely abnormal physical state due to the interrogation methods used. MACC has to take responsibility for at least that factor.
However, look at the reaction of the government in general. We have all sorts of people jumping to the conclusion that the opposition is turning it into a race issue. Where’s the proof? And these are law ministers, chief editors, the very people who should have an idea of how the law should be maintained. This is sheer idiocy. It just feeds the fury of the public. This is politics played by amateurs.
Now, the government has more than the death to account for. It has to answer why are there so many idiots speaking on behalf of the government.
feicipet
July 22, 2009 at 2:09 pm
with the death of Teo and so many other reported and unresolved custodial death before this, it is difficult to say which institutions of the government can we trust now.
I don’t think the people of Malaysia can put their trust in this rotten government anymore. Vote this government out in the next election!
drryaakop
July 22, 2009 at 4:52 pm
There is something about Tengku’s writing. It is that rare thing – an unfailing eloquence which cuts through to the heart of the matter.
awayintheworld
July 23, 2009 at 11:16 pm