Of Sugumar, Pornthip & Najib: An outright govt PROTECTION RACKET!

C. Sugumar’s untimely death continues to raise more questions than answers. The answers so far have been laced with greater suspicions of a police cover-up, which in turn appears to be covered up by the Najib regime. It’s a protection racket.

Calls for a second post-mortem examination of Sugumar’s body have been met by state-based obstacles. Clearly the first post-mortem, conducted at the Serdang hospital, was inadequate. The stated cause of Sugumar’s sudden death, put down to a heart attack, had too many ‘holes’. And police have dithered on whether to allow a second, independent autopsy of Sugumar’s body.

The second post-mortem, to have been conducted by Thai forensic pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunand suddenly ran aground. And no sooner had this happened that Prime Minister Najib Razak quickly denied his interference in halting the Thai’s forthcoming visit to Malaysia. But this, in itself, raised more questions and suspicions of a grand cover-up of Sugumar’s death, possibly murder.

In Melbourne, Australia, the Victorian state coroner yesterday successfully applied for to a halt to proceedings into the inquest of the death of 22-year old Ethiopian Michael Atakelt, whose body was found floating in a river last July.

Michael’s family and friends and the local Ethiopian community had expressed dissatisfaction with the initial findings of Atakelt’s drowning. In fact the Ethiopian community strongly expressed no confidence and trust in the Footscray police investigation.

The fact that the state coroner heard the appeals of Atakelt’s family, friends and the local Ethiopian community, as well as possible new evidence, and subsequently followed the letter of codes and practices of the law of the state of Victoria, called for a new and independent investigation into Atakelt’s death.

This is a clear example of what Malaysian authorities should have done in the case of Sugumar. They should have followed the codes and practices of law in Malaysia and, given the doubts cast over the Serdang hospital post-mortem, and given that there has been much damning precedence of deaths in Malaysian police custody, ordered a second, independent inquiry into Sugumar’s death.

Instead, the authorities chose to place serious obstacles in the path of Sugumar’s family’s requests for a second, independent autopsy, and, worse, the sudden apparent blocking of Pornthip Rojanasunand, as well as Najib’s quick denial of state obstruction against her visit.

Not that what the authorities have done is any surprise. The Malaysian government has a strong record of sodomising the country’s judicial system, including the constitution. Equally it has form on protecting probably one of the most corrupt and incompetent police forces in the world. This is the same police force that has wilfully allowed his institutional independence from the political executive to be compromised.

The police protects the Umno-BN regime against its critics and the regime protects the police from being investigated and brought to book for many of their heinous crimes against the human freedoms and legal rights of the country’s citizens. The police do not accord protection to its citizens; they only accord protection to its political masters in the Umno-led regime.

If Malaysia were truly a democracy, the ‘government’ would not allow the bastardisation of the rule of law to continue. It would order the police to grant a second, independent post-mortem to be performed on Sugumar and for the results to be revealed publicly and for truth and justice to prevail.

And if there is basis to the accusation that the policemen and the mob had pummelled Sugumar to his death, it must also be independently investigated. This is because the police of Malaysia cannot be trusted to investigate themselves. Moreover, the police of Malaysia do not have the mass support, confidence and trust of citizens.

The Australian example of due process and police and coronial independence should be critical lessons for the government and police of Malaysia to learn and heed as well as inculcate into their psyche and everyday practice. Otherwise Malaysia’s police and government will remain what they have become in unison -- the butt of the world’s joke. - Otakpusing