Najib, Liow COP OUT on Pornthip, pass buck to IGP: Sugumar's family to protest!

In what appears to be a cop-out by embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak and his Cabinet colleague Liow Tiong Lai, the family of security guard C Sugumar have been told to refer to the Inspector General of Police their appeal to bring in renowned Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan to conduct a second post-mortem on their dead son.

"The deputy director-general of the health ministry has just replied to on our request for Dr Pornthip. They want us to ask the IGP for permission. It's the passing of the buck game and the family is very upset," Latheefa Koya, one of the lawyers acting for Sugumar's family, told Malaysia Chronicle.

Indeed, Sugumar's mother plans to lead a group of friends and relatives to protest at the Health Ministry in Putrajaya on Wednesday at 2pm.According to eye-witnesses, Sugumar was chased down by the police, handcuffed, beaten and smeared with turmeric.

However, the post-mortem ordered by the police and conducted by the government's Serdang Hospital had found Sugumar died of a heart attack. This had led his family into suspecting a cover-up and to demand for a second autopsy by a neutral doctor.

Passing the buck while Sugumar waits for last rites

Liow, the Health Minister and also deputy MCA president, has come under fire over several incidents including being accused of trying to cover up for the police when they fired tear gas into the compound of the Tung Shin Hospital during the Bersih 2.0 rally in 2011, and for splurging tens of thousands on the car number plate WWW15.

Now, with the 13th general election due to be called within the next few weeks, few are surprised at Liow's rush to toss the 'hot potato' over to the IGP, Ismail Omar. The same goes for Prime Minister Najib Razak, who had publicly assigned the case to Liow's attention last week in an attempt to defuse public anger at Sugumar's death.

Najib, who has tried to woo the Malaysian Indian community by pleading for 'nambikei' or trust, has to tread carefully. If he gives the green light to Pornthip, he may upset the hardliners in his Umno party who champion Malay supremacy as a means to win Malay votes, of which the police force is a source of. But if Najib doesn't, he stands to be exposed as a politicalhypocrite.

"Najib calls for nambikei but refuses to resolve the most basic woes of Indians such as deaths in custody. Najib must immediately approve the second postmortem by Dr Pornthip. This will be a first step towards getting nambikei of Indian community. Talk is cheap. Najib must take concrete action," N Surendran, another lawyer told Malaysia Chronicle.

Not the first time Najib has tried to block Pornthip 

Sugumar's death has shocked the nation as it brings to the fore the growing problem with custodial deaths in Malaysia, where Najib's government has persistently refused to set up a reform IPCMC panel to clean up the force. The police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission have been accused of dishonesty, conspiring and lying to the public, corruption, trigger-happy brutality as well as racial discrimination towards suspects.

"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. 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," said Latheefa.

Sugumar's family are also angered by the latest delay and red-tape as they want to carry out last rites for him. Dr Pornthip has already agreed to do the autopsy but she may be blocked from coming to Malaysia or conducting the post-mortem by Najib and his government.

Najib had tried to do that in 2009 when Teoh Beng Hock, a political officer attached to the Selangor state government run by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Rakyat coalition, was found dead in mysterious circumstances after being interrogated by the MACC.

Speculation was rife several top MACC officers had conspired with members of Najib's Umno party to extract a false confession from Beng Hock so as to incriminate his Pakatan bosses and pave the way for Umno to wrest back the state government.

Pornthip, who was voted Thailand's most trusted woman, had impressed Malaysians with her professional conduct during the Beng Hock case despite all-out attempts by MACC lawyers to rile her up and to ridicule her findings. Pornthip had dismissed the MACC's claims that Beng Hock had committed suicide and suspected foul play.

Malaysia Chronicle