HARD-WON VICTORY: Health ministry finally agrees to Pornthip after family's sit-in protest

UPDATE2 Family members of security guard C Sugumar, who died in mysterious circumstances, expressed disappointment in Prime Minister Najib Razak and Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai for failing to keep their promises to look into the death of their son.

Represented by their lawyers and championed by members of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, the family had gone to the Health Ministry in Putrajaya to seek Liow's permission to bring in renowned Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan to conduct a second and independent autopsy into his death.

But they were snubbed by Health Ministry officials, who refused to meet them, sending only an officer from the communications department to tell them to go home.

"This is a slap in the face for Sugumar's family. They have already lost their son. How can Najib and Liow show such disrespect to them. They are totally heartless," the family's lawyer Latheefa Koya told Malaysia Chronicle.

Hard-fought victory but letter still needed 

Shouting 'mana mentri, mentri tidur, malu mentri, mentri letak jawatan', some 20 members of Sugumar's family then sat down to protest the Ministry's refusal to acknowledge their visit and to attend to their request.

Earlier, Ministry staff had tried to shut the glass doors on them to prevent their entry but could not stop them.

Their determination yielded results.

Two senior Health officials Dr Azmi Shapie and Dr Azhar agreed to allow a delegation of 5 family representatives to go up to their office. They then agreed to allow Dr Pornthip to conduct the autopy and arrange for facilities to carry out the procedure.

"It is too soon to call any moral victory. Until we have the letter in hand spelling out clearly the two conditions, the family is determined to camp out here," N Surendran, another of the family's lawyer, told reporters after meeting the officials.

At about 6.00, or nearly 2 hours after agreeing to allow Dr Pornthip to do the autopsy, the Ministry finally released the confirmation letter to the family. Signed by deputy director Maimunah Abdul Hamid, the letter stated that it would facilitate the post-mortem at any government hospital and that it would allow a foreign doctir to perform the procedure provided an application was made for a temporary practising licence.

"We are glad that the Health Ministry has issued the letter. But we regret that Sugumar's family had to be put through a sit-in protest to get it. This should not have happened. Death in custody is a very serious issue and we hope the government will learn its lesson from today's incident," said Surendran.

Even the poor deserve to be treated with respect

Indeed, the manner in which Najib and Liow conducted themselves over the entire episode has been less than satisfactory.

By snubbing Sugumar's family, they may have made themselves appear to be political hypocites out to make use of Sugumar's tragic death to gain the sympathy of the Malaysian Indian community.

With the country's 13th general election close at hand, neither Najib, Liow nor the BN's main Indian party - the MIC - can afford to antagonize the Indian electorate. However, they may have done so by their failure to institute real solutions for Sugumar's family beyond public relations and saccharine expressions of sympathy.

"It is telling that Sugumar's family came to us for help instead of the MIC or the PPP. This is a blow for them and the MIC should be ashamed of themselves for their deafening silence. Najib and Liow should also be taken to task for offering to help but then running away at the last moment," PKR MP for Kapar S Manickavasagam, who was also present, told Malaysia Chronicle.

"If the family had been less united and less determined to get justice for their son, they would have been chased away by the high and mighty tone of the Health officials. But they fought for their son and in the end they forced the ministry to face them and treat them with the respect they deserve even though they may be poor and humble people."

Deafening silence from the MIC

S Jayathas, the PKR special co-ordinator, also had harsh words for the way the Ministry had treated the family.

"The Indians come to us, not that we are stirring up trouble. Who caused Sugumar to die? Not us, we only want to help the family find the truth and Dr Pornthip is the best. We didn't ask the family to complain. They came to us for help. The fact is the Indians no longer go to MIC or BN anymore, they come to us because we have a long record of helping them - the Kugan case, Francis Udayappan. They know we will fight for them to the end," Jayathas told Malaysia Chronicle.

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