“There is ample circumstantial evidence and we agree the proper verdict should be the death of Teoh is due to a fall as a result of or accelerated by a person or persons, including MACC.” - Justice Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof (2014)
The indictment against the MACC for the death of Teoh Beng Hock did not come from the political class, the public or even the activist class but rather from the judicial branch in 2014.
As Teoh’s younger sister Lee Lan said at the time: “Now it is clear the court, in its final decision, says that the death is caused by unlawful acts of person or persons, including the MACC.
“His death is not due to suicide. We want the IGP (inspector-general of police) and AG (attorney-general) to reopen investigations to this case and charge those responsible.”
Teoh’s death has always been racialised even though to their credit, Pakatan Harapan political operatives, specifically DAP, have always attempted to play it straight. But of course, this did nothing for the propagandist of the establishment at the time from stirring racial embers.
At the height of the media coverage of the death of Teoh, then-New Straits Times group managing editor Zainul Ariffin Isa wrote an op-ed piece in Berita Harian which suggested there was an “agenda to discredit government institutions like the judiciary, police and MACC”.
The institutions, he added, were staffed predominantly by Malays. He alleged that some Selangor Pakatan Rakyat politicians had attributed the recent probe into them as being racially motivated. He also asked why the Selangor menteri besar, who is also a Malay, doubted the ability of his own people to act fairly.
Harapan to blame for state’s inaction
Teoh’s demise is also an indictment against the Harapan alliance and the political operatives who stood by the former DAP political aide’s family when it was politically profitable but abandoned them when in power.
What we have to understand is that the questions and possible answers to Teoh’s death are political. It should not be but it is just as the Indira Gandhi case is a religious one, these cases tragically point to the dysfunction of the investigative services of this country.
It is not malicious (even though partisans may feel that it is) to recall the justifications of political operatives for the inactions of those with power when it came to the closure of the death of their fallen comrade.
Lim Guan Eng attempted to shift the blame for the failure to get justice for Teoh’s family to former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
This was just another example of how totally ineffectual Harapan political operatives were in solving long-standing issues that are important for a certain section of their supporters but also reframing a system they campaigned on.
Can you see the same pattern today?
The fact of the matter is that Harapan is to blame for the inaction of the state when it came to discovering the truth behind Teoh’s murder.
How dare Lim peddle the nonsense that it was “agreed” by the cabinet to reopen the investigation but the then-home minister, Muhyiddin, was not interested in pursuing the case.
Indeed, linking the inaction on Teoh’s death to the then-Harapan government with the political manoeuvrings of the Sheraton Move is extremely deceitful.
Where were all the high-profile ministers who had no problem lurking around when it came to attending Teoh’s memorials, but suddenly found themselves “voiceless” in the New Malaysia that we were promised?
Political malfeasances
It must have been a spit in the face for Teoh’s family that the personalities involved in the death and farcical investigation of his murder seeped into the Harapan bureaucracy and strutted around as if their sins had been washed away.
Contrast this to the death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim, who was not only compensated by the state but whose death remains a mystery only because the events that led to it are mired in the kind of corporate and political malfeasances peculiar to Malaysia.
These days, the Madani state and the state security apparatus warn the public when it comes to “speculating” on the malfeasances that occur in the country’s administration of law and justice.
The state is quick to clamp down on news coverage of hot-button issues when it comes to the bureaucracy, but the reality is that this is the system that Harapan promised to reform if they managed to claim power.
Mutually beneficial
There is a connective tissue between the MACC and the political class, and it is mutually beneficial for the MACC and the political class to be simpatico.
Mind you, I am not making this claim. In 2020, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad twice warned the MACC to stop harassing his comrades or “…we have to be very active in exposing all the wrong things that they carry out”.
It says a lot about the dysfunction which could be classified as criminality, when the person who once led the Harapan government can threaten to expose the alleged malfeasance of the MACC if they continue harassing his political operatives and ignore the fact that he supposedly has “evidence” of wrongdoing, which should have been reported to the “relevant” authorities.
And keeping silent when the MACC is engaging in wrongdoing if they harass your political party means what exactly? That you keep their sins and omissions to yourself if they aided your coalition when in power?
It should make rational Malaysians wonder what the relationship is between the political class and the MACC at this moment in time.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has said that the investigation papers on Teoh have been passed to the Attorney-General’s Chambers. He also claimed - “the Royal Malaysia Police has called back the witnesses to complete the investigation papers…”
I hope that Teoh is the reckoning MACC deserves but the question is, will the Madani state dare spook the security establishment? - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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