"Family and friends of people who have disappeared experience slow mental anguish. Not knowing whether their son or daughter, mother or father is still alive. Not knowing where he or she is being held, or how they are being treated. Searching for the truth may put the whole family in great danger. Not knowing if their loved one will ever return often leaves their relatives living in limbo."
In any functional democracy when a statuary body accuses the state security apparatus of kidnapping, political operatives would be exploiting the issues and demanding that the relevant agencies be investigated. The victims’ families would be surrounded by a gaggle of political operatives hoping the spotlight not only shines on them, but also that any investigation into government institutions not only demonstrates the integrity of the institutions but the political process as well.
This, of course, is not the case in Malaysia.
When Suhakam concluded that the “enforced disappearance” of pastor Raymond Koh and activist Amri Che Mat were the results of actions carried out by the state security apparatus, the prime minister of this country, instead of protecting the integrity of the system by advancing calls for an independent investigation, cast doubts on the findings of this statuary body and asked them to submit evidence of their claims.
When firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim was injured in the Seafield Temple riots, this was what the Pakatan Harapan grand poobah said - “Based on the victim’s condition, it is clear that those who did this intended to kill him. We can hold demonstrations but it has to be done peacefully. What took place was not a demonstration, but an attempt to kill when they came with parang and such. We don’t have much evidence, but police will conduct a thorough investigation to find out the mastermind behind this.”
So without any evidence, without any investigation but most importantly, without any clue as to what happened, the prime minister of this county concluded that Adib was attacked with the intention to kill. Since the inquest, it has become clear that the “attack” on Adib was not a murder attempt and the inquest has shone a light of various structural issues that plagues this country and the mendacity of certain individuals.
Meanwhile, any reading of the Suhakam reports on the “enforced disappearance” would understand that there is enough circumstantial evidence that warrants further investigation into the state security apparatus. The disappearance of pastor Koh and Amri is not something that happened in isolation. Rather it is part of the systemic dysfunction that makes it impossible for rational Malaysians to trust the integrity of the system.
Besides the ever-reliable Klang parliamentarian Charles Santiago, where are all the other Harapan MPs who should be sounding off on this and especially on what Mahathir said?
When the prime minister says – “We will then set up a group to study if there is substance in the hearsay evidence by Suhakam”, it is rubbing salt on the wounds of family members who have lived in anguish since their loved ones were kidnapped.
It is an unacceptable response. Think about it. The government is setting up a group to study if the findings of Suhakam are credible. They are not investigating the state security apparatus but the people accusing the state security apparatus of malfeasance.
Extrajudicial action
Let us be very clear. If the state security apparatus took these two men, the only resolution is for the state to return them. In my piece on who ordered the kidnapping of pastor Koh, I made this point - “Whoever these people are, they were confident that the narratives of the state security apparatus would shield them from whatever repercussions of the former Umno state and, here is the important part, may very well shield them from the sanctions of the Pakatan Harapan regime.”
And this is really an important point. The prime minister as usual blames the previous BN government for this and claims that the current Harapan government is ignorant of the many things that the former government did. This is a bogus defence of the indefensible.
The fact is that Harapan political operatives - including the prime minister - love to go about the things they have discovered the previous Umno government was up to when they were in power. These political operatives love to hold press conferences and write op-ed pieces about how the current government is discovering the malfeasance of the previous regime.
This idea that suddenly the Harapan government is ignorant of the acts done by the state security apparatus is complete horse manure. The prime minister has no problems coming to the conclusion that a Malay firefighter was attacked by people intent on murder, but does not even entertain the idea that state actors were involved in the disappearance of a Christian pastor and a Muslim activist who the state had accused of deviance.
The prime minister now says that police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun should be allowed to retire before his replacement investigates the matter. So after claiming that the findings of Suhakam were hearsay, the prime minister expects us to believe that the police investigating their own would be impartial and fair, when the benefactors of power groups within the state security apparatus have already cast aspersions on the Suhakam report?
In what I consider an optimistic piece, former parliamentarian Kua Kia Soong calls for the prime minister to secure the release of the pastor Koh and Amri. Here’s the thing. Are they still alive? And this is really the important question, right? Are these people still alive? The fact that the prime minister of this country can demonstrate empathy and anger for a victim like Adib and indifference to the families of pastor Koh and Amir is an indication of how this so-called new investigation will be carried out.
The state security apparatus from the beginning has denied any involvement. This, of course, goes against the facts when it comes to how the state security apparatus operates. There are politicians in the government now who have been detained and their rights trampled on. Kua is a survivor of the unjust state laws on detention without trial. The history of the state security apparatus is one of extrajudicial activity supported by the ruling regime.
This is a description of a raid carried out by the religious bureaucracy on a church led by pastor Koh - “Around 30 Islamic religious and police officials entered the church compound in Selangor state without a warrant and began taking videos and photographs.”
This regime keeps blaming the Najib regime for all the problems they face. Harapan was voted in because of the reforms they promised. The kidnapping of pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat (amongst others) may have been during the Umno/BN watch but what happens to them now, is legally and morally the responsibility of the Harapan government.
If the prime minister wanted to, these men could be returned to their families. Unless they cannot be.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of the National Patriots Association. - Mkini
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