| ||||
Malaysian media have failed to ask the right questions, and the surviving victim of the incident should be properly interviewed by independent media, says Mathaba Malaysia News Editor
According to Malaysian corporate media, a man and a woman were shot by police after they were seen brandishing samurai swords outside Block B1 of the Prime Minister's Department in Putrajaya, the government city near Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
The man [Editor: now known to be Khalil Afandi Hamid] who the media say was shot in the left arm succumbed to his injuries at the Putrajaya Hospital according to some reports, or was dead on arrival according to other Malaysian media reports. The hospital would be able to verify which version is true.
The police are also saying that he was shot in the abdomen, yet the photograph shows a possible shot to his left leg, not abdomen, although that could be concealed from the photo if on his side. If he was shot in the abdomen subsequently that would explain a quick death, and mean that he was shot when totally disarmed and already heavily wounded, i.e. after the above photograph.
The only other facts which are clear thus far are those which are evident on the photographs: that the woman was possibly wounded in the right leg, not the left one as claimed, although she does not appear to be in pain, so it could be blood from the man. Only a proper forensic examination would establish the facts of the injuries. Hospital reports alone can be inaccurate or even faked.
Statements by the police, which have a notorious reputation for corruption in Malaysia, have been uncritically echoed by Malaysian media, even contradicting the apparent images from the photographs.
Malaysian media (and police?) are repeatedly saying the woman [Editor: now believed to be Muhdalina Ahmad, 28] was shot in the left leg. If that is so, then then perhaps further shooting took place with additional rounds after the couple were clearly disarmed and posed no threat, as photographs show?
On the other hand, if she was shot in the right leg as the photographic evidence seems to show, or not shot in the leg at all, then either the Malaysian media or the police or both cannot get their facts right, and don't know right from left, fact from fiction, so how can we trust their other statements?
If it takes independent media such as Mathaba News to state the obvious, then it will take independent media to find the facts.
For this reason, we insist that this issue is followed up and that any media do their job properly, which is to inform the masses of the truth. The right questions need to be asked, quickly, and there is a living witness, the woman in the photograph.
For the time being, we cannot distinguish between the police and the media, since the media is echoing police statements uncritically. Nor can we assume impartiality of the police, who are clearly guilty of at least some incompetence, as the evidence shows.
We can also hold as questionable, the statements by the police which may be designed to use an uncritical and subservient media, among which is the Star, in order to make the victims of the shooting appear to be deranged and to deflect attention from their possible multiple crimes of shooting unnecessarily, and of allowing a wounded man to go without any assistance after the fact.
A possible scenario is that the two persons wanted to see the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Ministers Office with a complaint, but were denied entry and in desperation returned brandishing swords.
Desperate people who find all the doors closed, will do desperate things to attempt to obtain justice, or at least attention. Even those who are not desperate but have been wronged, may attempt to obtain a right in the absence of a competent system.
The statements of the alleged wife of the man who was shot and bleed to death while the police looked on without administering any aid whatsoever, and who was not present at the scene, must also be held as questionable. It is being claimed she said her husband was deranged and claiming to be the Mahdi.
A critical media would understand that as the victims are Malay, and Malay anger against the overwhelmingly Malay police and Malay government would be an uncomfortable scenario, especially if this has to do with complaints against the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister's Office, then this is a sure fire way to encourage the nation to consider him as mad.
That is not to say that what the wife says is not true, or that the media have twisted it, or that the police have bribed or threatened the wife, or that the wife is jealous of her husband who may have been having a relationship -- of whatever type -- with the woman who was with him when he was shot. All these possibilities need to be investigated, and the right questions asked.
However, it not only requires a proper investigation, but an independent one since the police cannot be expected to investigate and incriminate themselves. Moreover, it should be conducted with honest and reliable media able to interview various sources in order to help to ascertain the truth, or at least to separate facts from fiction.
One such fact, is that the wounded man did not appear to be in an immediate danger of loss of life after being shot in the leg and arm, and that the woman with him was alone in trying to stem the loss of blood from his left arm, by squeezing his upper arm.
Not one of the many bystanders including at least 7 police officers, had the presence of mind or even any training in first aid, to realize that it would be better for the man to lose his arm than to lose his life. Tying a tourniquet on the arm above the wound is elementary knowledge.
Even later as the man lay on his back perhaps losing consciousness due to ongoing loss of blood and also agitation, as shown by photographs, not one of the police present paid any attention to him whatsoever. They were standing around like guests at a party, at complete leisure.
It appears that one police woman is bending over the woman victim, but still no one is paying attention to the man. It is not clear from the photograph what the police woman is doing, holding the woman victim down, or attempting to assist her.
Perhaps an inquiry will show that the woman was making noise and in pain, and the man was quiet, and with a lack of medical training these incompetent police officers attended to the noisy person first, ignoring the silent one, which is contrary to emergency procedure.
However, the photographs reveal that they were certainly not at all concerned, other than perhaps the woman officer, since at least 6 other officers of which 5 were male and one perhaps male or female, were standing around doing nothing, one looking into the bushes as if the bushes may give him an answer as to what to do next, or perhaps wishing his shift can finish and he can go home.
Even assuming that the police statements that one security guard was briefly taken hostage with a sword to his throat and then released, before the couple were shot are being true, it is evident even to a child that there is no need to use lethal force by fire arm against someone that is not at that moment posing any threat to life when shot.
On the contrary, even according to the police statement uncritically echoed by the Malaysian news media, the couple having released the hostage (if indeed he was ever held) embarked upon battering a couple of vehicles outside, and were thus not engaged in threatening any human life, but in fact were busy damaging property.
So at which point was fire opened? What was said before fire was opened? Where are the video tapes of the events including the alleged holding of a security guard as hostage, if only for a few moments? What are the names of the two persons? Can Mathaba interview the woman and verify her story?
The longer this is left to linger, and then any evidence fades away, the less likely the police can clear their name, even though there is no way to clear what the photographs already reveal. This is why we have news media who should be doing their job, asking the right questions, and verifying facts.
 Malaysian police stand idly by while man they shot bleeds to death A zoom in of the above image:   It appears that the police, perhaps the police woman, used crime scene tape to tie a tourniquet on the woman victim's right leg, to stem blood flow . |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.