SERIOUS CONFLICT OF INTEREST – WILL JUSTICE BE FLUSHED DOWN THE TUBES AGAIN?
26 June 2019 Media statement by Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (CAGED)*
*”Special Task Force” to investigate the disappearances of Amri Che Mat and Raymond Koh is an attempt to undermine Suhakam’s findings and to derail police reform.*
Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (CAGED) is flabbergasted by Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s media release today.
In the release, Muhyiddin claims to have formed a special task force to pursue the conclusion of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) that the Special Branch of the police disappeared Social Activist Amri Che Mat and Pastor Raymond Koh.
Muhyiddin’s media release does not include the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the task force – despite Muhyiddin having said to the media on two previous occasions that the ToR have been drafted.
Muhyiddin has appointed retired High Court judge Dato’ Abd Rahim Uda as chairman. Dato’ Rahim is the judge who, in December 2011, upheld the coroner’s “open verdict” in the death of Teoh Beng Hock.
That is relevant because Dato’ Rahim’s decision was unanimously overturned by a 3-member panel of the Court of Appeal (CoA) in September 2014. It is also relevant because the Suhakam Inquiry panel depended on that CoA decision when setting the bar for evidence which led to the conclusion that “Special Branch, Bukit Aman, did it.”
Muhyiddin has also appointed as a member Dato’ Zamri bin Yahya, the serving head of the “Integrity” department of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) – the supposed “Internal Affairs Department” of PDRM.
Zamri’s appointment is absolutely outrageous because his department should be within the scope of investigation of the “task force!”
A third member of the six member “task force” is an even more dubious appointee. Dato’ Mokhtar bin Mohd Noor, listed in Muhyiddin’s media release as former head of the Legal department of PDRM, appeared for the police during the Suhakam Inquiry! In fact, he made the closing arguments for the police!
There is more bad news.
Muhyiddin says Pastor Raymond Koh will be out of scope of the “task force” because a person has been charged in the matter of Raymond Koh and that investigating the case while the person is awaiting trial will be sub judice and “contempt of court.”
- That is preposterous because,
- as established during the Suhakam Inquiry,
- the matter for which the person has been charged
- is different from the matter before the Inquiry.
The person (Lam Chang Nam) is charged with extortion, not abduction or kidnap!
The matter before the Inquiry was the failure of the police to thoroughly investigate two cases of great public interest.
Furthermore, sub judice only comes into play if any material which may influence a witness or judge is published. Suhakam’s decision has already been published.
- Therefore sub judice is a matter for consideration by Mr Lam and his counsel, not by the supposed “task force.”
- The question of contempt of court does not arise at all!
The “task force” appointment is a blatant attempt to undermine and subvert the unanimous findings of three distinguished, legally-trained, Agong-appointed Human Rights commissioners – and the Home Minister claims the cabinet is behind this!
All right-thinking Malaysians must reject this supposed “special task force.” Muhyiddin must seriously question the persons who advised him on membership of this “taskforce” – they are clearly persons who wish to hide truth, not reveal it.
The composition of the “task force” makes it abundantly clear that their remit is to undermine and subvert Suhakam’s findings, not investigate!
It is clear that they have no interest in holding complicit police personnel, and their defenders such as Dato’ Mohtar, accountable.
If Muhyiddin does not disband this “task force,” he can expect calls, even from retired and serving police personnel, for his resignation.
Muhyiddin must recall what IGP Hamid Bador is reported to have said: a small minority of cops give the police an overall bad reputation.
All honest, dedicated policemen will be outraged by the composition of this “task force” for no one will believe it capable of doing creditable work.
Everyone will say “there we go again, more whitewash.”
On the other hand, a credible task force will restore honour to PDRM by unearthing truth and punishing miscreant officers.
A credible task force will pull PDRM out of the basket of atrocious police forces such as those in Argentina, Chile and the Philippines who have scant regard for the rule of law.
A credible task force will help Hamid Bador reform the police.
This is a matter of great national urgency!
Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (CAGED)
26 June 2019
My comments : My view is this. The Suhakam Inquiry fingered certain elements of the Police. The Police comes under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Policemen do not go around abducting people or even writing a parking ticket without getting orders. Someone must have ordered them.
In our country, ALL the uniformed services (military, police, customs, immigration) must come under civilian authority. This is our democratic system.
It is the Civil Servants in the Ministry of Home Affairs who eventually give orders to the Police. This is a very good arrangement.
But sometimes things can go wrong.
Mistakes can be made.
In serious cases like this – where people have been abducted and made to disappear – most likely murdered – it is quite impossible that the chain of giving such orders came from the local Ketua Balai.
Civilians are most likely involved including politicians and maybe some religious leaders. It was obviously a political decision.
Both Amri Che Mat and Pastor Koh were not suicide bombers, violent terrorists, bank robbers or any such thing. Therefore their abduction was clearly a political decision.
If the Police (who are the now the suspects in these abductions and disappearances) did indeed receive orders from the civilians, politicians (AND THEY MUST HAVE, THERE ARE NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT) then they would not have received orders from the civilians and politicians in the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
The orders can only come from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
NOTE CAREFULLY : This is not some blind accusation. This is the hierarchy of the power structure and of how things work in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
So now for the same Ministry of Home Affairs to be given the task and responsibility of selecting, appointing, setting the Terms of Reference for the Task Force is a huge conflict of interest.
The senior civilian authority in the Ministry of Home Affairs (the civil servants and the politicians) should be part of the investigation. They should also be investigated.
BECAUSE REMEMBER THIS : THERE IS NO WAY SUCH SERIOUS BREAKING OF THE LAW WOULD HAVE BEEN ATTEMPTED BY ANY UNIFORMED PERSONNEL WITHOUT ORDERS, AUTHORISATION, INSTRUCTIONS OF THE CIVILIAN AUTHORITY.
My view is the Ministry of Home Affairs should NOT be involved in the setting up of this Task Force at all.
This is a most extraordinary crime that has taken place – state sanctioned abduction of people.
Sadly it is not unusual. I refer the Altantuya case, also involving policemen who were given orders.
During the First and Second Emergencies, bandits and terrorists were ‘taken out’. They were armed terrorists waging war against our country. The Emergency is over.
In Sabah, bad guys have been ‘taken out’ – sometimes with the ‘presence’ of US Navy Seals. The bad guys are armed foreigners, waging war against our country.
Amri Che Mat and Pastor Koh did not present any violent threat to the nation. Period.
What I see is that the POLICE CAN POSSIBLY BE MADE THE SCAPEGOATS WHILE THE CIVILIANS AND THE POLITICIANS WHO POSSIBLY GAVE THE ORDERS CAN GET AWAY SCOT FREE.
This is what I see.
It is more just and better acceptable for the Task Force to be appointed by a Parliamentary committee and that they report to Parliament.
Or (last resort) they can be appointed by the Office of the YDP Agong – but I have my reservations. The Office of the YDP Agong may not have the expertise and will ultimately rely on the same civil servants again.
The time has come for the “civilians” and the “politicians” who have the real control over the armed services (like the Police) to change their thinking. And they better do it in a hurry. This is the 21st century. This type of thinking has to stop.
– http://syedsoutsidethebox.blogspot.com
Ahhh... Politicians. The real earth's scumbags. Enough said.
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