Authoritative Verdict

(NST) - Let no one impugn its rigour, credibility and integrity when the proceedings were held in the open, the 124-page report made public, and no punches pulled in stripping bare the abuses of power.

IT was a foregone conclusion that the verdict of suicide reached by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) would be unacceptable to the family of Teoh Beng Hock. After all, they have insisted that the 30-year-old had no reason to jump to his death. Certainly, as the cold-eyed forensic psychiatric evaluations revealed, Teoh was by no means suicidal. Nonetheless, no dispassionate observer can rule out with absolute certainty the fact that the torment, frustration and despair that he experienced under the "aggressive, relentless, oppressive and unscrupulous" questioning from the officers of the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) could have become so overwhelming that he broke -- with heartbreaking results for his family and a lot of ill-tempered politicking for the nation.

Of course, homicides can be staged to look like suicides. But then again, suicides could also be made to resemble murders. True, as the family pointed out, there seems no reason for him to kill himself as he was going to get married the next day to the mother of his unborn child. But it's also just as true, as the RCI concluded, that the MACC had no reason to liquidate a potentially valuable witness.

One may not be happy with the verdict and disagree with the findings. Certainly, they can challenge the decision through judicial reviews and appeals. But like it or not, the considered judicial opinion of this panel of distinguished judges and reputable forensic experts was delivered after a thorough, meticulous and conscientious examination of the two postmortems, the assessments of forensic pathologists and forensic psychiatrists, the testimonies of witnesses, and the statements in the written submissions. It has also been able to come up with a definitive answer that the Shah Alam magistrate's court failed to provide with its open verdict in January. Let no one impugn its rigour, credibility and integrity when the proceedings were held in the open, the 124-page report made public, and no punches pulled in stripping bare the abuses of power.

Rather, now that the RCI has closed the case as a suicide, the focus should be on the recommendations to seal the gaps in procedures and end the "blue wall of silence" in order to prevent ill-treatment of witnesses and suspects. As the report has singled out three MACC officers, the case has also become a question of their criminal responsibility for Teoh's death. This should be a matter for the police to investigate and the courts to decide rather than a matter of internal discipline to be dealt with behind closed doors.