Shoddy treatment of Teoh's family shows MCA's fear of Umno

Teoh - a national battle cry for justice

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

Pakatan Rakyat leaders condemned the police and the MCA for bad faith in arresting Teoh Lee Lan, the sister of the late Beng Hock, for distributing pamphlets in Galas containing information about the high number of suspicious and unexplained deaths under government remand.

The MCA or Malaysian Chinese Association is part of the ruling BN coalition and has often been accused of betraying the community it says it represents for the sake of retaining favor with Umno, which is Prime Minister Najib Razak’s party.

“This is clear manifestation of the desperation felt by Umno. We have reason to believe that they and their BN running dogs instigated the police to arrest Beng Hock’s sister,” Bukit Gantang MP and PAS central committee member Nizar Jamaluddin told Malaysia Chronicle.

“The Chinese support for BN is fast dwindling and if there anyone left who still thinks the MCA can stand up for Malaysian Chinese, they must be hallucinating. Not only has the MCA shut the door on the injustice suffered by Beng Hock, no one even seems surprised that they can report his sister to the police. Imagine, just a day before that, MCA supporters even assaulted his brother in law!"

MCA terrified of Umno

A by-election is taking place in Galas, where PAS contestant Dr Dzulkefli Mohamad is pitted in a straight fight against Umno’s Abdul Aziz Yusof. It is a small constituency of some 10,330 voters, of which 22.3 percent are Chinese, 65 percent Malay, 11 percent Orang Asli and about 2 percent Indian.

Lee Lan in black t-shirt

Although the state seat is part of Gua Musang, an Umno stronghold, a swing in Chinese and Malay sentiment helped PAS win the seat in the 2008 general election with a slim 646-vote margin. With balloting due on Thursday, Nov 4, there is enormous pressure on MCA to swing the Chinese vote back to the BN camp.

“Leafleting or even campaigning is not illegal. Why can’t the BN leaders hear what Lee Lan and her group wish to say? What is the MCA so afraid of? This is just a group of youths who want to highlight the injustice done to Beng Hock,” PKR information chief Latheefa Koya told Malaysia Chronicle.

“But the truth is the MCA is terrified of Umno. It dares not to speak out. It doesn’t even dare to be seen as sympathizing with Beng Hock’s family, what more the issue of high remand deaths.”

Leafleting, even campaigning is not illegal

Beng Hock was a 30-year old Selangor political officer when he died in suspicious circumstances in 2009 after overnight interrogation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. His family believes he was tortured and died as a result of rough interrogation by the MACC, which was trying to hang a string of corruption allegations on top Pakatan Rakyat leaders in Selangor. Umno has been accused of hatching the plot and instigating the MACC probe in a bid to topple the Pakatan Selangor state government.

Teoh's brother-in-law roughed up by MCA supporters

An inquest is now taking place but there has been monumental resistance put up by the MACC and the police, sparking fears that the Najib administration would influence the Coroner into announcing an open verdict. In anticipation of this possibility, Lee Lan and her friends have been campaigning for public support for a full-scale Royal Commission of Inquiry into her brother’s death.

“The police have clearly abused their power. They can only arrest people when there has been public unrest or nuisance not when people exercise their rights to express grievances. Election Offences Act Section 4A has no relevance in this case,” Beruas MP Ngeh Koo Ham toldMalaysia Chronicle.

Police have said they acted on complaints that the group was engaged in campaigning activities, in contravention of Section 4A (1) of the Election Offences Act. They arrested Lee Lan and three others but denied them the right to legal representation. All four were later released following the ensuing public outcry.

”The plainclothes police stopped us; they said the (death in) custody issue will affect security, and that we can't speak openly. But I said these figures on custodial deaths are from Hisham (Home Minister) in Parliament, even the press reported it,” Malaysiakini reported Lee Lan as saying on Sunday.

"We want to see our lawyer, but our demands have been denied. What did we do? Did we affect the election?"