Raymond Koh: 1,000 days of unanswered questions

It has been 1,000 days since Raymond Koh was abducted from his car in broad daylight and his kin continue to demand to know his whereabouts.

At a dinner in his remembrance last night, Koh’s wife Susanna Liew (above) questioned the lack of results from the police’s 33-month investigation into the case.

“After 1,000 days, what has the police to show for their investigation?

“Nothing. No updates, no new leads,” she said at the event in Kuala Lumpur.

During the event, HIV activist Marhalem Mansor shared how he and his family deeply missed Koh. He credited him for being the inspiration behind his shelter for people living with HIV — Rumah Teduhan Harapan.

“Until today, my children, the youngest who is now 10 years old, is still asking ‘when will uncle Raymond come to our house again?’.

“We always talk about the good things he has done for us. There is nothing in common between Raymond Koh, me and my family. But because of his humility and his servanthood, he embraced us wholeheartedly.

“Whenever we think of him, we want to see him (again) one day,” Marhalem (below) said while holding back tears.

Suhakam’s public inquiry previously concluded that Koh, a Christian pastor and community worker, had been a victim of enforced disappearance in an operation carried out by Bukit Aman’s Special Branch.

In response, the Home Ministry established a special task force in June this year and gave it six months to scrutinise the inquiry findings.

Bukit Aman’s former legal unit chief Mokhtar Mohd Noor, who had represented the police during one Suhakam hearing, was one of the six task force members.

Mokhtar withdrew after Koh’s family questioned his neutrality.

Concerns over task force

During her speech, Susanna said she had initially welcomed news about the task force but now wondered if it was sincere in getting to the bottom of the case.

This is because she and her family have been summoned to the police station twice in the past three months and were asked “irrelevant” questions about her husband’s friends, finances, and faith.

“My question is are they using the task force to intimidate the family and to criminalise Pastor Raymond Koh?” she asked.

Bar Council deputy president Roger Chan hoped that the task force would conduct an independent, thorough, and prompt investigation into the case.

He also urged for its terms of reference to be made public.

“The Bar urges for the immediate release of terms of reference so that the probe can be completed in a transparent manner. The public has the right to know,” he told the audience.

Among those seen at the dinner were Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh, Subang MP Wong Chen, and PKR Perlis chairperson Mohammad Faisol Abd Rahman.

Suhakam commissioner Mah Weng Kwai, Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy, Citizens Against Enforced Disappearance (Caged) spokesperson Rama Ramanathan, former diplomat Dennis Ignatius, and lawyers Gurdial Singh Nijar, Jerald Gomez, and Steven Thiru were also present.

CCTV footage of Koh’s abduction; carried out on Feb 13, 2017; showed how the 64-year-old was grabbed by a group of masked individuals within 40 seconds while he was driving along Jalan SS4B/10 in Kelana Jaya, Selangor.

Aside from Koh, the nation has also been rocked by the unsolved disappearances of Amri Che Mat, Joshua Hilmy and Ruth Sitepu.

Suhakam similarly concluded that the police were behind Amri’s enforced disappearance. The commission is set to announce dates for its public inquiry into Hilmy and Sitepu's case. - Mkini