Yet another meaningless death in custody

No, Darmindran’s death would not have kept Najib off his dinner nor would it have caused his cabinet colleagues any discomfort.

COMMENT

Yet another report of an Indian dead while under police custody. As always his injuries are horrific and N Darmindran must have had a lingering and painful death.

I do not know what our Prime Minister thinks about Darmindran’s death. I do not know what his ministers in the Cabinet will do to find out what caused Darmindran’s death, and what they will now do to ensure that these kinds of sufferings and torture are not inflicted on any Malaysian citizen.

But if the past is any indication…nothing!

What manner of leaders do we have that allow these policemen to murder people in their custody? What manner of people are employed by the police force who do these evil things upon people in their custody?

How do we stop this? How can we have a police force that will protect us, not attack us? Or are these state orchestrated violence sanctioned by the BN government to let us know the extent that they will go ostensibly to keep “law and order”, but in reality they are turning a blind eye to a police force that have already committed too many ‘favours’ to keep any opposition and ‘any threat to national security’ in check?

Will another death in custody put Najib off his dinner tonight? Will he be able to sleep tonight thinking that his government has again failed to protect its people from a police force that is as much feared for its ability to inflict on command physical harm upon our people as for its ability to keep murdering suspect in their custody?

No, Darmindran’s death will not keep Najib off his dinner tonight nor will it cause his cabinet colleagues any discomfort.

What the police did was what the Election Commission did, what the JKR will do, what the Treasury officials do, what Bank Negara does and what any other authorities or agencies tasked as the guardians of our national wealth and the safekeeping of our people do – they all do the bidding of their BN political masters.

The question now is what will you do about it? And what will make a difference? One simple answer – education!

We need educated leaders; we need for our people from all walks of life to have enough education to make them understand what is right and what is wrong.

And if the education had been right, this government and its people will know that the police cannot murder suspects in their custody.

An educated IGP will understand that he is ultimately responsible for the action for those under his command.

Education can do this for us but our education process today does not tell us enough of these things – about quality of life and social justice.

No, I am not just talking about the kind of education that builds human capital. I am not talking about the kind of education that sorts you out according to your abilities.

Not about the kind of education that can increase your income and make you more healthy…no!

Leaders not bothered

I am talking about the kind of education that allows you to know what quality of life and social justice is all about. The kind of education that will enable our life outcomes to be for the better not only for ourselves but more critical for the society that we live in.

Our Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has a degree in industrial economics from the University of Nottingham. His wife Rosmah Mansor has a Masters Degree in Sociology and Agriculture from Louisiana State University.

Our previous prime minister Mahathir Mohamd is a doctor – but all three of them and many of their peers do not seem to understand the need of our people to have decency and social justice in their life.

And that is why we will continue to have these deaths of people while under police custody.

And that is why our country will continue to have leaders who labor under the belief that they are owed a debt of gratitude by the people of this nation in spite of the pillaging and the plundering that they do to our wealth and resources.

I felt sadness at this report of another death in police custody but what I felt more is anger. Anger that again it is always the most defenceless and powerless of our people that will suffer the most.

This is what our country had become today. Amongst other things, we have a government that imposes its draconian will upon us and has taken quality of life and any social justice away from us.

And they do so with an impunity that beggars belief! This death in custody of Darmindran is just another statistic in a long line of deaths in police custody – and as for Najib, whether his morning coffee has enough sugar in it is more important than the death of Darmindran.

If we again keep quiet and allow the police force to get away with another death in custody, what will they do next?

Why not Pakatan Rakyat or the Malaysian Bar take the responsibility of installing a 24-hour phone line service that gives anybody taken into police custody access to a lawyer.

God knows that the over 3,000 deaths in custody in Malaysia is reason enough to do this. And of course this BN government must allow anyone arrested the right to one phone call and the right of access to a lawyer immediately after arrest.

But you and I know that this will not happen.

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.