Shocked, Outraged, Saddened (SOS): Royal Commission of Inquiry Now!!!...

It appears that Malaysians are perennially bombarded by shocks and shock waves, since the epic March 8, 2008 general elections.

One after torrential one, political shenanigans and Machiavellian trickery appear to jolt our sense of justice, equanimity and sense of belonging, of our shaky if aspired to patriotism.

It shatters the already nebulous myth of the jingoistic "1 Malaysia" which continues to belie the unvarnished disarray that consumes our politically-fractured citizens. Sadly, most if not all of these inane happenstances are self-inflicted by unthinking members of an administrative branch run amok, which appear increasingly aloof and out of touch with reality and changing times.

On many occasions too, politicians on either side have been trading body blows of razor-edge brinkmanship, which totters on mutual self-destruction. In its wake, these cheap point-scoring exercises continue to drag some of us, the more rabble-roused citizens deeper into the morasses of futility and despair! No, it's not our fault per se, but it most certainly underscores the pathetic state of justice and sense of fair play in the country.

Political aide, Teoh Beng Hock's untimely and truly unnecessary death has put yet another damper on the institution of justice and law enforcement in the country. This time the hurriedly cobbled together MACC must bear the brunt of this senseless and tragic exercise of unfettered power play and what appears increasingly as blatant one-sided prosecution, perhaps even shameless persecution!

Sadly, the officers in charge appear nonchalantly oblivious that what they have been doing, is anything but impartial or even neutral. Their blinkered attempts to push what must be undisguised probes into so-called complaints of misallocation of funds only of oppositionist lawmakers, surely must be from partisan directives! For fair-minded citizens, there appears not to be any modicum of decency to do the 'right' thing, even if only for show!

Instead, in one fell swoop, officers of the much maligned MACC have destroyed every thinking Malaysian's dream of civility, personal human rights, justice and modern democracy. Their arrogating of power to enforce their duties without regard to natural justice and proper rules of engagement, debases most thinking citizens.

It continues to disabuse us of our fanciful notions that perhaps some semblance of innovation and justice may indeed be the better modus operandi of the new leadership under Prime Minster Najib Razak. If for nothing else, this blatant misuse of the machinery of power, reinforces the need for a more enlightened, a more responsible and accountable system of justice and law. I continue to believe and hope that this new administration can do better and rise above such unnecessary if arrant negative publicity.

It is sad that in the process of trying to enforce the 'law', a young man with so much potential has been so ruthlessly cut down, his life truncated so prematurely, that he had now left behind a bride and his orphan child to be!

This cynical loss of life, so senseless and so unnecessary, points to perhaps another growing culture of arrogance when another's life was dehumanised and cheaply disposed of... Power of authority was all that mattered. This is indeed not something isolated, indeed it is now appearing to be a pattern of ingrained autocracy, unchallenged power among enforcement agencies such as the police and now the MACC, with no foreseeable oversight in place...

Custodial 'torture', unregulated investigation methods, custodial injuries and deaths, now appear to be commonplace, and are occurring with a regularity that showcase our enforcement agencies' callous disregard for human lives and their imperious unconcern for human rights.

When will our helpless, disempowered citizens get justice? When will our Kugan Ananthan, Letchumanan Kathan, Ravindran Alagiry, S Henry, A. Gnanapragasam, and now Teoh Beng Hock, get their justice? When will their true stories be told? When will their loved ones find closure and meaning in such senseless premature loss?

What about the other 1535 custodial deaths that had occurred between 2003 and 2007? Surely these numbers are shockingly high by any standards; they are shameful and unacceptable, and point to a systemic failure of our custodial service, our law enforcement agencies.

Can there be any doubt that these should never have happened, nor must they be allowed to continue? How many more nameless and unnumbered detainees beyond 2007 were there, who have suffered, been injured and who might or might not have perished?

In the 2005 Royal Commission Report for Police Reform, 3 major concerns from the public were identified:

* High incidence of crime and widespread public concern regarding personal safety.
* Public perception of widespread corruption within the police force.
* Extensive and consistent abuse of human rights and non-compliance with prescribed laws.

The report acknowledges that because of the above challenges, there is a growing breakdown of public trust and confidence in the police force. Increasingly the police force is “generally viewed as inefficient, uncaring, unable to prevent or check crime.” Worse, the police is seen to condone widespread “infringements of human rights... and the PDRM is not seen as being transparent or accountable to the public.”

In the light of these weaknesses, a resounding recommendation was made that an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) be set up urgently. This is the proposed external oversight body to be established through an Act of Parliament, and which must be vested with powers to receive and investigate complaints regarding alleged police misconduct and to impose sanctions against any found guilty of such misconduct.

That appears to be the crux of the matter. As of right now, the police force and now the MACC appears to be 'above the law', answerable only to the Home Minister, if that was at all, evident.

There appears to be no oversight body to determine if there have been abuse or misuse of their powers and worse, if they had engaged in criminal activities including custodial abuses of detainees, unlawful taking of lives, any life without justification! There have been instances where, the police had acted as judge, jury and executioners as well, e.g. shooting deaths of groups of so-called armed criminals.

Has there ever been any review of such extrajudicial shootings by any independent police or watchdog Internal Affairs Department, as exist elsewhere? From 2001 to 2003, there were just 6 coroner's inquests, out of 80 reported custoidal deaths—were the other 72 deserving of their untimely deaths?

SUHAKAM (Human Rights Commission of Malaysia) has on several occasions, been promoting the continuing education of human rights to the public—its purpported "work to nurture, develop and advance a human rights culture within Malaysia".

My belief is that the public does need some reminder of their human rights, every now and again. We often take this too much for granted. Sadly, most of us are now fully aware, when tragedies such as Teoh's shocking death, happen. It reminds us that perhaps, these can happen to us too, without rhyme or reason—too chancy, too unbelievably unjust, too unpredictably senseless and too iffy!

Of greater concern is to remind and educate the enforcement agencies such as the police, the military and now the MACC, to be not only mindful of their duties, but to demand their strict adherence to human rights dictates in each of their engagement with the public.

Detainees, witnesses, suspects, prisoners, whoever they are, must be accorded due respect and fairness, until all their legal rights have been exhausted. There should be greater move toward painstaking gathering of evidence, rather than resorting to coercing and extracting confessions, which have been identified as a faulty barbaric mandate preferred by some of our law enforcement officers.

A recent NST editorial "Death of a Witness" makes a logical if grudging apologia for some form of closure to this debacle:

"In the face of a sceptical public which is over-receptive to any and all allegations of bias and subterfuge, and unwilling to give the MACC the benefit of the doubt, while it must be bold and resolute in investigating and prosecuting cases without fear or favour, it must also not abandon due process.

"This makes respect for human rights as critical as the selection process for investigations and the impeccable credentials it must establish for itself if the MACC is to enjoy the wholehearted confidence and close cooperation of the public."

A Royal Commission Inquiry is now mandatory to appease the ghosts of all these custodial deaths, which must now include the MACC. In the interim, the MACC must suspend all its activities pending this full inquiry. Its due processes and rules of engagement must be reviewed and spelt out clearly, with no ambiguity as to which investigative techniques are illegal, and these should be fully subject to oversight sanction.

Legal representation, and continuous videotaping of all suspects and witnesses should be mandatory without exemption. Selection of officers must be entrenched with human rights education and inculcation, and those with wrongful attitudes or aptitudes must be removed or redeployed to other areas which do not interact with the public, lest they resort to actionable if delinquent activities. In other words, it must undergo a total revamp and complete overhaul, if it should ever wish to regain any semblance of credibility, at all...

Teoh's untimely demise must not be in vain! Our shock, our outrage and our sadness must be translated into a meaningful revamp of our enforcement agencies, and hopefully reignite some new belief and help reclaim some confidence in our badly bruised civic institutions...


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Political Uncertainty, Credibility Crisis: Deja Vu?

Nearly ten years ago, I wrote a controversial commentary (reproduced in full below) in the MMA News, where I trenchantly belabored the fact that we were undergoing a severe credibility crisis, institutional collapse and gross dereliction of sanity amidst a mind-boggling series of exercise in political farce sweeping the nation, orchestrated by our then arrogant political masters.

It appears that once again these uncanny forces of mischief and mayhem are at it again... In an eerie remake of Machiavellian deja vu, Pakatan Rakyat de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has once again been smeared with a sex scandal. This is one not much different from that falsely engineered in 1998, and which was thrown out in court--"expunged" from its tainted records...

From several independent polls (see Sex scandal could backfire on gov't: analysts and Poll: Almost everyone thinks Anwar's innocent) this time round, more than 90% don't believe this new allegation, with as many pointing to a conspiracy by certain powers that be.

Cynicism is at an all time high, and many among the rakyat are deeply angered and dismayed that this has come to pass again. Will they never learn? How much more battering can our badly tarnished national image take?

Or are our political machinations so cynical and desperate that every possible last gasp perfidious measure has to be taken, to stay in power at all cost, regardless of the Pyrrhic victory and the collateral damage all around...

"When a state legitimates itself successfully the costs of achieving its goals will be low; if it fails to persuade others, it has to resort to costly force or bribes. If it fails to persuade itself, it soon crumbles. All power ... and ... all leaders are vulnerable to the trap of confusing fictions and truths--believing that if only they can find the right turn of phrase or explanation they will solve the real-life problem that lies behind it."~ Geoff Mulgan, in Good and Bad Power: The Ideals and Betrayals of Government, Penguin Books, London, 2007, pp105.

May God Save Malaysia!


Political Uncertainty, Credibility Crisis and the Malaysian Dilemma

“Every country has the duty to safeguard its peace and internal security. But it must in some sense merit that peace by ensuring the welfare of all and respect for their rights. Where justice is lacking, society is threatened from within. This does not mean that the changes required should be realized through violence, for violence merely paves the way for a violent society, to which, we cannot subscribe. What it does mean is that there are social changes, sometimes very profound ones, that must be brought about ... by peaceful reforms.” ~ Pope John Paul II

"The past month or so (this was written in October 1998) has witnessed an unprecedented barrage of events, which have left many Malaysians, numbed and bewildered.

Never before have there been so many provocative happenings; that have stirred the imaginations or the talking points of so many Malaysians: from taxi drivers, office workers, kampung folks, to students, academics and professionals from every walk of life.

As medical practitioners, we have not been spared the conflicting tensions, which have divided our ranks. Pro- and anti-establishment opinions have emerged: one favoring stability and the status quo, and the other defending righteousness, openness and justice.

Despite the political underpinnings inherent in these intriguing debates and discussions, the looming threat that “politics be best left to politicians” is clearly considered inappropriate.

These issues, which have developed from day to day, have proven far too important and significant for every man in the street to ignore or to remain silent. Thus every peace-loving but fair-minded citizen should become interested, and perhaps take a stand, although not necessarily publicly, but at least to appease one’s own conscience and sanity of mind.

Every Malaysian must necessarily be interested in our own political development, because politics ultimately affect every one of us. More importantly perhaps, is the growing perception that good governance of any nation should be open to fair criticism or appraisal from its own citizens. Elected leaders can no longer expect their every action or conduct to be embraced as absolute truths or without faults.

Human mistakes or unforeseen errors of judgment will inevitably occur. As such, it is appropriate and a sign of enlightened leadership to accept that these should be pointed out by concerned citizens. A paternalistic and authoritarian approach is no longer acceptable or apropos with the times.

One important sign of our rakyat’s burgeoning maturity and malaise is the increasingly powerful feeling that loyalty to our country and sovereignty does not equate with blind loyalty or allegiance to political leaders.

If anything, more and more people are beginning to question the actions and excesses of some of our elected leaders. They can no longer count on unquestioning loyalty or trust from the ordinary people, as their right, if they, the elected representatives choose to carry out arbitrary and repugnant actions which run counter to the sense of justice or aspirations of the rakyat.

Moreover, there is an expanding belief that our local media have been too blatantly biased, and are fast losing much of their credibility. Repetitious and relentless one-sided propaganda can only harden the public’s sense of outrage and incredulity with the press, especially when the sense of fair play is felt to be lost in the growing power play among our political leaders.

It is worthwhile pondering on what Rose Ismail, a newspaper editor has to say: “The accusations hurled at some of us have been hurtful. Even my father no longer reads my newspaper because he has chosen to believe what he finds in the Internet.” She admitted that some had accused the media of being biased (NST, Oct 22, 1998, page 5).

Something must be grossly amiss when ordinary people no longer feel they can trust the usual mainstream newspapers. Something must be wrong, when even our previously taciturn yet steadfastly supportive neighbours begin to raise their eyebrows and question the sudden about-turn in our much-vaunted and much-respected democratic principles and practices.

Once, these were the envy of many, particularly in the third world. Once, we were the de facto Asian voice of reason and leadership, much respected, and held high in esteem for many.

Now we appear to be the butt of international rebuke. We appear to be sliding into a self-defensive outcast mentality. We begin to decry the perceived foreigners’ interference and loudly denounce every contrarian opinion from within and without. We appear to be testy, paranoid, and enshrouded under the mushrooming cloud of a siege mentality.

In this age of all-consuming globalization, it is certainly not in Malaysia’s interest to hunker down in the trenches, and hope for the economic holocaust to blow over. We must take every prudent step to stay connected and make the necessary structural and socio-economic reforms, to prevent us from being totally sidetracked by the world's rapidly transforming economic and market re-adjustments.

Media editors and journalists must take cognizance of the fact that unless they show greater objectivity and sensitivity, and not play along one-sided, offensively crude but judgmental slants, they will be rendered irrelevant as purveyors of the truth or facts of any nature. Just as we rightly condemn distorted news reporting from the foreign press, can we not expect that our local media resist and desist from such diametrically opposite malpractices?

In this harrowing climate, can the discerning Malaysian be blamed for wanting to seek a different viewpoint? Never before has any one person in Malaysian history been so publicly vilified, and condemned, (perhaps even mentally and physically brutalized?), in such a tawdry trial by sanctioned media, without due process of the law, without giving the accused the equal opportunity of right of reply, or to defend himself.

No one questions the prerogative of any national leader to dismiss any or even all of his ministers, but must the media be party to the vile and quasi-pornographic depictions on the front-pages, to justify support for those purported crimes? Surely, everyone deserves some semblance of respect for the law, to allow natural justice to be carried out, by due process.

Even in Malaysia, any accused must be regarded as not guilty until proven otherwise in the court of law. Are we entering a new political era where we can now summarily accuse, judge and then sentence anyone in the courtroom of the mass media? Are we not edging perilously close to a totalitarian, a fascist or a police state?

Lopsided news with suppression or censorship of legitimate dissenting views appear to be the new order of the day, particularly conspicuous, after the sudden resignations of the editors of two major newspapers, and the CEO of a TV station. In their places have sprung sycophantic and jaundiced justifications and diatribes, which further strain the press’ objectivity and belie their underlying motives.

Taken together, this smacks of a concerted yet preemptive strike by the authorities that be, to stifle or restrict possible voices of dissent. This augurs poorly and alarmingly for constitutional freedom of expression, so jealously guarded by all modern Malaysians.

Thus, we as ordinary citizens and as concerned professionals should be aware that, the shape of our society, now and in the future, would depend upon our acceptance or resistance of the rapidly changing sociopolitical landscape that we have been thrust into.

While all of us eschew social and political unrest and uncertainty, and renounce violence of all sorts, we must not fear change or reform for the better. For sure it is safer and far more comfortable to adhere to the status quo: “better the devil you know than the one you don’t.”

However, we should also realize that ultimately our children and we would have to inherit whatever legacy the present quandary leaves behind. We might be saddled with an immense but fossilized yoke of outmoded autocracy – one that might be impossible to crack, henceforth.

We could be retreating several decades back in time in terms of sociopolitical development, where all our hard-fought civil liberty becomes consumed in the fires of authoritarian might and dictates. Our way of life and freedom to choose, might become the ossified relics of autocratic decrees of potential neo-colonialists and despots.

In discussing revitalization of society, philosopher Dr Alfred North Whitehead, had said that “the art of free society consists first in the maintenance of the symbolic code, and secondly, in the fearlessness of revision... Those societies, which cannot combine reverence to their symbols with freedom of revision, must ultimately decay...”

As concerned citizens and as part of the caring profession, we as doctors urge the powers that be to re-examine their individual conscience vis-à-vis their own political agendas and temper these with that of the nation. We hope that we will not slowly slip into the quicksand of “Might is Right” mindset.

We urge the authorities to reconsider their progressively heavy-handed approach in trying to stifle legitimate expressions of dissent, through peaceful but visible means. While all of us do not wish for mob rule or political unrest which could undermine our peace-loving yet fragile multicultural society, we must explore the reasons why, such spontaneous expressions of dissent as demonstrations, are sprouting up, again and again, in defiance of our usual love for law and order. Could it be because, there are no other legitimate avenues for popular dissent?

When a restless populace becomes frustrated and disenchanted with the establishment, can it not justifiably resort to some other form of protest, where they can make their views be heard or seen? While we do not condone any violence, can we not respect the right of the people to assemble peacefully, despite the inconvenience this might bring about to some of us?

Do we need to constantly harp on the potential dangers of unintentional racial flare-ups, when there is no such ethnic tension to begin with? Should the spectre of remote ethnic unrest forever deter us from fair or rational thinking in supporting a just course, in wanting a more liberal and open society?

Or do we subsume to a climate of insidious yet not-too-subtle intimidation and repression? Are we to be forever ruled by circumstances and fear of the bogeyman May13, 1969?

We are pained that peaceful and orderly demonstrations have been routed into running street battles with the police, who should be the logical safeguards and not the heavy-handed enforcers of the law. Violent repression of unarmed and otherwise peaceful people cannot be justified, under any circumstances.

Brutality and torture of whatever form exercised in the apprehension of non-resisting law-breakers or those already in custody is never acceptable in today’s civil society. The right of anyone in captivity or under detention to be treated humanely, without arbitrary excesses of either physical or mental torture, and to be legally represented, is a treasured universal human right, which we should never compromise with.

Similarly, Malaysians who feel strongly that they want to protest or demonstrate must remember that they should never resort to violence – as violence begets more violence. They should consider that it is far more worthwhile and effective to espouse the great philosophy of passive non-violent resistance (satyagraha), as so passionately championed by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Therefore, we plead with the authorities to temperate their exuberance of law enforcement with a touch of humanity, in trying to tame down a restless yet peaceful if vociferous crowd. They must exercise the greatest restraint when carrying out their difficult tasks of enforcing the law particularly on an unarmed but passionate people, even if they believed them to be misguided.

We hope and pray for a return to sanity and dialogue, so that the painful events that have erupted thus far be made a thing of the past. We urge that justice and reform be allowed to showcase our political maturity in tackling sociopolitical differences.

Malaysians must resist the temptation to allow the looming spectre of absolutist repression or violent social upheaval from changing our social and political landscape, forever."

[Editorial Commentary in Berita MMA (MMA News), October 1998]