It looks like a fed-up Malaysian Indian community is digging in this time. No longer are they appeased by the empty promises of political personalities and parties, not even those that come from the lips of the country's most powerful and wealthy.
It is now a case of 'put your money where your mouth is' and embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose call to the Indians for 'nambikei' or trust is now on the line following the shocking death of security guard C Sugumar, who at least 3 eye-witnesses have said was cruelly beaten to death in daylight by a mob led by cops.
Sugumar's parents have decided to appoint renowned Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan to take up the cudgels for their dead son, whom they believe was murdered and the Malaysian police now trying to hush-up the case by claiming he had died of a heart attack.
"Najib calls for nambikei but refuses to resolve the most basic woes of Indians such as statelessness and deaths in custody. Najib must immediately approve 2nd postmortem Dr Pornthip. This will be a first step towards getting nambikei of Indian community. Talk is cheap. Najib must take concrete action," N Surendran, a lawyer for the family told Malaysia Chronicle.
Show your 'nambikei' Najib
It will be deja-vu for both Pornthip and Najib. Both played prominent roles in another controversial Malaysian death - Teoh Beng Hock, a political officer with the Selangor state government. But while Najib has to plead to Malaysians to trust him, Pornthip is already Thailand's most trusted person, according to a 2010 Readers' Digest aurvey.
Beng Hock, a former journalist was only 29 when his body was found outside the MACC Shah Alam headquarters in 2009 where he had been called to give his statement over alleged corruption in the Pakatan Rakyat-led state government.
Beng Hock's family is still adamant he was unwittingly murdered by officials from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, who allegedly were trying to force a false confession from him implicating his bosses, paving the way for Najib's Umno-BN coalition to win back the state government from the Pakatan.
Police predilection for violence against Malaysian Indian suspects
According to eye-witnesses, Sugumar was chased down by the police, handcuffed, beaten and smeared with turmeric. The first post-mortem conducted by the Serdang Hospital forensics department found that Sugumar died of a heart attack.
"Sugumar had no health problems and was only 40 years old. It is unbelievable that a healthy man should suddenly collapse and die immediately upon arrest," said lawyer Latheefa Koya, who had gone to the hospital amid pleas for help from Sugumar's family, who were blocked and prevented from seeing the body by police and hospital persoonel.
"When we viewed the body in the mortuary, the deceased was still handcuffed and there was turmeric powder on his face. There were also lacerations consistent with a struggle against the police assailants as described by the witnesses."
Turning to the Opposition for justice
The government-controlled mass media has tried used their political status against them and make Sugumar's case seem like a trivial issue blown up intentionally by the Opposition to embarrass Najib's beleaguered administration.
"So what if Sugumar's family approaches the Opposition for help. In fact, this show how the MIC and Umno-BN as a whole have failed to stand up for the ordinary people," PKR senior leader Tan Kee Kwong, a retired medical doctor, told Malaysia Chronicle.
"Of course, we have to respond when Sugumar's family or any person for that matter pleads for assistance against any form of injustice. It doesn't make Sugumar's death any less of a possible cold-blooded murder. Is Umno-BN and the mainstream media saying that because we extend our help to Sugumar's family, his death is justified and they are less entitled to justice for their son?"
Umno-BN caught red-handed: Plunge in public confidence
Serdang Hospital pathologist Prof Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin was subsequently found guilty by the Malaysian Medical Council(MMC) of professional misconduct for falsifying Kugan's post-mortem findings. Khalid Abu Bakar, the ten Selangor police chief, was also caught red-handed lying about the Serdang Hospital post-mortem report. Yet despite the controversy, Khalid was later promoted to Deputy Inspector General of Police, the second highest post in the police force.
It is not surprising recent surveys show a disturbing plunge in public confidence for the police, and their conduct as well as the ruling coalition's in the Sugumar case is likely to bolster the belief that they can never change or reform.
Najib's cousin, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who tried to reverse the negative publicity by promising a thorough investigation has also been accused of lip service and political insincerity.
In what appears to be a feeble attempt to cover up a startling outburst from Kajang police chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Wahab that no investigation would be launched as Sugumar's post-mortem showed he had "died of a heart attack", Hisham chided the cop. Yet in the next breath, Hisham refused to comment on whether the BN would finally form an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission to deter abuse of power by cops.
When whistle-blowers, eyewitnesses, those who go against Umno are punished or even murdered!
Not surprising then that public distrust for the Umno-BN is so deep that eye-witnesses in the Sugumar case have not dared to make their statements to the police without the protection of their lawyers.
They point to past examples where even the deputy chief of the Selangor Customs, Ahmad Sarbaini, could walk into the MACC office in Cheras and like Beng Hock never managed to return home alive again. Like Beng Hock's, Ahmad's body was found sprawled outside the MACC office and the death-by-misadventure verdict delivered by the inquest as dissatisfactory to Ahmad's family as Beng Hock's open verdict was to his.
In the Kugan case, the mainstream press had tried to paint the 22-year-old as a hardened car thief. In the Beng Hock trial, the MACC - which falls directly under Najib's purview - tried to ridicule Pornthip's expert opinion and did their best to smear Beng Hock's reputation and that of his family's and pregnant fiancee's.
In Sugumar's case, the police and the mainsitream media has portrayed him as an out-of-control 'amok' who habitually endangered public safety. But his family is having none of that.
They want his death to be classified as murder and are not put off by the long process that may be involved in getting justice for their son and in the end be disappointed and let down as Beng Hock's family was by Najib, who had promised to leave no stone unturned in getting to the truth of the matter.
" I would caution Najib to look at his popularity ratings. It has been plunging and is now the lowest (63%) ever held by a sitting prime minister. This didn't happen by accident. If he continues to take the people for a ride, regarless of Chinese, Indian or Malay, the people will write him off," said Kee Kwong, who had quit the BN's Gerakan party citing disappointment in the ruling coalition's lack of sincerity and principled stand .
Malaysia Chronicle
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