The inquest into Teoh Beng Hock’s unusual death at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) which begins tomorrow should be suspended until the Cabinet has taken full account of the overwhelming demands coming not only from the family but the Malaysian population regardless of race for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to probe into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.
The Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail’s attempt to defend and justify the Cabinet decision last Wednesday to break the inquiry into Teoh’s death into two part, one an inquest into the causes of death and another, a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the MACC’s interrogation techniques had been a flop, convincing no reasonable Malaysian.
Gani said that there cannot be a RCI into Teoh’s death and that the right and proper thing to do is to establish an inquest as the Cabinet has done.
Has Gani never heard of the Hutton Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of David Kelly’s death in the United Kingdom in 2003?
David Kelly, a Ministry of Defence scientist, was found dead after appearing before a parliamentary committee investigating the political scandal of British’s war against Iraq as he was accused of leaking sensitive information to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
A judicial inquiry headed by a judge, Justice Hutton was established to inquire into the causes and circumstances of Kelly’s death.
The inquest into Kelly’s death by the Oxfordshire Coroner had been adjourned while the inquiry proceeded. The inquiry reported on 28th January 2004 and the Oxfordshire Coroner announced in March 2004 that the inquest would not be reconvened.
Gani cannot be unaware of the David Kelly case, which is not the only one of its kind in the United Kingdom or other Commonwealth countries.
The question is why the Cabinet and the Attorney-General are not prepared to adopt these best international practices when public confidence in a comprehensive and untrammelled investigation into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death is at stake?
(Media Conference Statement after the Pakatan Rakyat leadership council meeting in Parliament on Tuesday, 28th July 2009 at 4.30 pm)
#1 by OrangRojak on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 7:14 pm
He probably has heard of it. I doubt he’ll be perturbed by your question – he’ll be thinking “what kind of whitewash he want now?”.
#2 by Jaswant on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 7:27 pm
Holding an inquest into the suspicious circumstances of someone’s death is the logical way forward. The family of the deceased would want to know. But when the suspect is the government, then the way forward would be by a way that is independent of the government, and transparent and accountable only to the public.
An RCI would open the floodgate to so many other issues. It is obvious they don’t want to link these ‘other issues’ to the death.
The compromise between the two would likely be a watered down version of a Royal Commission of Inquiry, limiting its inquiry into the direct circumstances of the death of the deceased and then finding that there is nothing in the evidence to suggest foul play by anyone named.
#3 by Jaswant on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 7:30 pm
In the inquest an ‘open verdict’ will be recorded.
#4 by sheriff singh on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 7:40 pm
Wow! A fortune teller.
Maybe he can tell us who did it.
#5 by Jaswant on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 7:45 pm
That’s right. You don’t need a fortune teller to tell you that.
#6 by Jaswant on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 7:56 pm
The police wants to rule out murder. They cannot. They want to say it is suicide. They cannot. They cannot settle on ‘misadventure’ and since they cannot blame it on any alien from some spaceship, it has to be ‘an open verdict’. Coded language for ‘no further action’.
How convenient.
#7 by Justitia on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 8:37 pm
Yes, Mr. AG. Whose ass or asses are you folks trying to cover this time around? This is what we want to know. That is why we want a RCI into TBH’s untimely death to get at the truth. Very suspicious for denying this or preventing this.
#8 by pwcheng on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 8:43 pm
That’s UMNO tactics. Whenever they have something to hide in order to save their running dogs they will turn a deaf ear to the rakyat. That is how they play their “you scratch my back and I scratch yours” game. The rakayt is sick of all this and UMNO will never changed and if they think they can prolong their survival by playing these sort of games, they are grossly wrong.
#9 by johnnypok on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 8:47 pm
Pigtail is an obedient lap-dog, and can only bark to the tune of BN/UMNO. So don’t waste time on this useless animal.
#10 by Joshua on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 9:11 pm
another case on 16 July of custodial death now challenged:-
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/109451
Detainee dead, family suspects foul play
Andrew Ong | Jul 28, 09 5:05pm
A woman has disputed the official account of her brother’s death, who died in police custody at the Sentul police station on July 16.
MCPX
According to the police, R Gunasegaran, 31, had died from a drug abuse.
His sister, R Ganga Gowri, 32 (right), disagreed with this version in her police report today in which she alleged that he may have died after being assaulted.
#11 by SENGLANG on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 9:14 pm
For those who still trust this man call GP please read recent comments by NH Chan and also speech by Zaid Ibrahim.
He is one of the most powerful weapon use by the power of today.
#12 by chengho on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 10:05 pm
the family went to see Najib today…. they believe in goverment giving justice….
#13 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 10:11 pm
“Has Gani never heard of the Hutton Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of David Kelly’s death in the United Kingdom in 2003?”
Hell, no!
To be honest, Gani is barely legally literate, if you know what I mean. After all, it was you who pointed out that this rather infamous AG still makes simple grammatical mistakes and spelling mistakes, or something of that sort – in fact, he is hardly impressive when he opens his big mouth, so I hear.
#14 by wifeejane on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 10:33 pm
Please lah, shame on you Gani. You are being used as a tool by the UMNO again. Trying out all sorts of stupid cover up to convince the rakyat of UMNO misdeed. Don’t underestimate the intelligience of the Malaysian rakyat. This is to Najib – Please do not make all sort of excuses. Don’t limit the scope of the RCI. This will make the rakyat having less trust in the current goverment. The rakyat wants a RCI on the death of TBH not on the MACC procedures. If you give the rakyat the RCI, first you could stop all the harping and accusation of the opposition, second you would be seen in the eyes of the rakyat that you r sincere in wanting the truth to be out, third your party UMNO will not be link to TBH death. Do u know that suspicion is pilling on the theory that the tit for tat tactics of Khir Toyo which might cause the death of TBH. Najib please go down to the street and did a proper survey. 99% of the rakyat believe that TBH death is the result of MACC and is not a suscide. This is not a time to cover up but to show your determination to change the perception of the rakyat against you or else all of you will be sitting on the opposition bench after the next election. There is too much bagguage in your team. The best way to reestablish UMNO image is to remove all these baggage and make changes to UMNO constitution to have the president elected by all members not certain warloards.
#15 by ekompute on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 11:12 pm
“Gani cannot be unaware of the David Kelly case, which is not the only one of its kind in the United Kingdom or other Commonwealth countries.”
Well, I don’t believe Gani ever intended to establish the truth… and so is Najib. Gani has a job to do, i.e. to protect his political masters… after all, he owes his political master this cosy job which is not based on merit. Najib’s job, on the other hand, is to get the present government out of the s.hit. But in the process, both sink into the s.hit and now stink like s.hit.
#16 by frankyapp on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 11:18 pm
Hi guys,we are all for a full RCI on TBH tragic death.Will NR listen and act according to TBH family and the people wishes ?.I think the Umno interest/stake is too high for NR to compromise with the rakyat. Hence NR is using various tools to hide certain ends and conners to protect its interest. This AG aka GP is a friend ,I know him,he’s a good guy.It’s a pity that he could tolerate for so long,knowing pretty well he’s being used.Guess he does not want to lose his full pension. Or he may have been hold for a ransom,reason why he’s cooperating pretty well with kidnapper.
#17 by tanjong8 on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 11:18 pm
It is highly probable that Gani Patil does not know the Hutton enquiry.
To accuse him of not following the best practices is not fair because he simply does not know such a practice exists !
In Malaysia, no body cares and no body will be held accountable !! This is the culture after years of rule by Mahathir who the Utusans claim to be the pride of Malays and to attack him is tantamount to attacking the Malays !
#18 by elvie ho on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 11:46 pm
The verdict of the inquest have already been written from the office of the PM and it is sudden death from a high fall
#19 by limkamput on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 - 11:59 pm
This is garbage talk, talk that has no meaning and consequence, talk that doesn’t even deserve to be here. The most appropriate place would be at loud mouth’s kopitiam.
#20 by limkamput on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 12:01 am
Don’t be too sure, may be he has never heard it before. This is bolehland mah.
#21 by OrangRojak on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 12:38 am
may be he has never heard it before
I would have thought it would have made it into the news here. ‘Christian’ country bombs Muslim brothers, claims WMDs. Nice guy (with a beard) knows there were no WMDs, might have mentioned it to a journalist. UK government ‘outs’ him. Nice guy says “I will probably be found dead in the woods”. Is found dead in the woods. Not enough blood around. Hutton Inquiry started. Hutton Inquiry says “government awfully nice chaps, nobody should question them”, also says “ya, he’s dead”. Independent (which I think is a good newspaper, not like the right-wing rubbish the Malaysian Insider usually quotes articles from) has a front page the next day that says “WHITEWASH?”.
Now I would have thought Malaysia’s leaders would have had some parochial interest in this story. Or is Iraq not Malaysia’s parish? Are they ‘the other lot’? I get confused.
Interestingly, this is still a current event – see:
dr-david-kelly.blogspot.com
Malaysia isn’t the only country where things happen that you would rather didn’t. I personally think democracy in the UK took a bit of a hiding over the last 20 years, while lots of us were making enough money to not really care if we were circling the political drain.
#22 by ekompute on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 2:21 am
Limkamput says: “Don’t be too sure, may be he has never heard it before. This is bolehland mah.”
Well, these people employ hordes of consultants and advisors with our tax money whenever they like. So even if he has never heard of it, his consultants and advisors will tell him.
#23 by Joshua on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 4:26 am
PM meets Teoh’s family, vows action
Jul 28, 09 10:11pm
In the 30-minute meeting at his office in Putrajaya, Najib told the family that no stone will be left unturned in finding out the real cause of Teoh’s death.MORE
‘Action will definitely be taken’
Finding a solution for child’s surname
#24 by anna brella on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 4:51 am
Although it may be a little far fetched, but perhaps the AG has not heard of the Hutton Inquiry.
And if someone at the AG’s supposed level of legal competence is confused or unaware of the difference in meanings between the words “duplicitous” and “duplicate” then it is also quite possible that the AG may have heard of the Hutton Inquiry but the penny on it may not quite have dropped or sunk in yet.
It’s only a far-fetched theory of mine I hasten to add and so I could of course be way off the mark here given that the AG we are referring to here is none other than AGP.
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
#25 by Jeffrey on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 7:10 am
///Has Gani never heard of the Hutton Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of David Kelly’s death in the United Kingdom in 2003?///
We have to be careful in suggesting whether AG heard of it. The Hutton Inquiry was a British judicial inquiry chaired by Lord Hutton, appointed by the United Kingdom Labour government with the terms of reference “…urgently to conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly”.
A judicial enquiry of such nature publicly held is also a public enquiry and a public enquiry is not exactly a Royal Commission of the type either in the UK or here pursuant to our Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950.
For one thing you’d notice that RCI has more than one arbiter (commissioner) in adjudicating public issues, and I believe that this Hutton Enquiry chaired by only James Brian Edward Hutton, Baron Hutton appointed by Blair Govt for what many allegedly to be a ‘white wash’ enquiry. It is easier for govt to ‘control’ outcome through appointment one present or ex judge. What happens if govt says since you want it we would give you (joking) a Eusoff Chin Enquiry as equivalent to British Hutton Enquiry ???
In what way is such a public judicial enquiry like Hutton different from an inquest except that the latter is presided by a low cog judicial magistrate whereas a public enquiry by a high cog judge (chosen by govt)? They’re not going to have a NH Chan Enquiry if you get my drift.
Even a Court in which Teoh’s family sues govt (MACC) is arguably better than a public/judicial enquiry of the type like Hutton Enquiry presided by a judge nominated by
govt! At least, a RCI will involve al least another tier (The King) (to be consulted) to appoint, albeit on cabinet’s advice, a couple of commissioners whereas a public enquiry like Hutton’s, the govt may not be obliged to consult anyone…
For the record, when Lord Hutton delivered his report, it white washed and favoured and cleared Blair’s government and no-one in the BBC.
“Much of Britain’s press has lashed out at the judge who cleared the UK government of any wrongdoing over the suicide of an Iraqi weapons expert, accusing Lord Hutton of a “whitewash” and questioning whether justice was really served. The long-awaited verdict, delivered by Hutton on Wednesday, attracted “widespread incredulity,” Thursday’s edition of the right-wing Daily Mail said”. See CNN report – http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/01/29/hutton.press/
Beware what we suggest or ask for!
#26 by Jeffrey on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 7:24 am
In reference to what Jaswant posted #6 on July 28th, 2009 19:56 where he expressed his take on dilemmas faced by authorities on how to cover up, Lim Kam Put once again has no constructive comments except to stir animosity and cause dispute by his irrelevant and non contributive comments, “This is garbage talk, talk that has no meaning and consequence, talk that doesn’t even deserve to be here. The most appropriate place would be at loud mouth’s kopitiam” see his posting #19 on July 28th, 2009 23:59
Lim kam Put, tell us in what way and why specifically and exactly what Jaswant commented is “garbage talk” that “has no meaning and consequence, talk that doesn’t even deserve to be here. The most appropriate place would be at loud mouth’s kopitiam”???
Give us your reasons.
Don’t say things and criticize just for the sake of criticizing, and insulting for the sake of insulting, without rationale and with only prejudice, venom and animosity towards the person of the poster/messenger (with no relevance to the merits of his message) – that’s easiest to do, and it is subversive of the orderly discussion pursued by everyone else in this blog!
#27 by Bigjoe on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 7:53 am
What can you expect from an AG who does not know his English,, The probably believe what he said and that is the problem.. The man is just NOT up to scratch. Forget his politics, he needs to go just for quality of his work…
#28 by taiking on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 8:58 am
Maybe LKS forgot something. Malaysia has progressed much since the son of kutty’s time. We are now way above the UK for god’s sake. In fact we are now catching up with zimbawe. If everthing goes well we should surpass zimbawe in the very near future. Then we would be pretty much peerless. In other words, we would then stand as a true “world leader”. Then najib can instruct the US police to investigate ex-president bush for all sorts of things like the war against terror for instance and direct the US AG to charge him and the US Supreme court to convict him and the seefour him as punishment.
#29 by frankyapp on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 9:11 am
I have a feeling that our AG aka GP must have been made a kind of a puppet acting according to some hidden hands wishes.He was not like this as state AG some decades ago. Well,time and places might have changed his character .Regarding Joshua’s comment that NR’s assurance to TBH family that he would not leave any stones unturned.My problem with Umno/BN is these guys usually dig around the surface of the ground,pick up those loose stones and then say it’s done.They never ever try to dig deep into the ground to find the last stone like professional gold diggers.
#30 by Jaswant on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 7:07 pm
Jeffrey, all symptoms point to paranoid schizophrenia. He has serious issues with himself. I recommend that he seeks professional help.
I mean talking to oneself on his own blog – a blog nobody visits – is SICK.
And now with that pull-down screen, he says he is sorry there are too many visitors! And so it is now by invitation only! It has got to be voices in his head telling him who he is, how important he is, and what he should do.
http://limkamput-nincompoop.blogspot.com/
#31 by Onlooker Politics on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 9:21 pm
‘He probably has heard of it. I doubt he’ll be perturbed by your question – he’ll be thinking “what kind of whitewash he want now?”.’ (OrangRojak)
OrangRojak,
You may be overestimating the capability of this AG. If you ever know the story about him that this AG was very keen to win in a case which he served as the Prosecuting Officer who charged the Opposition Leader of Sabah, namely Pairin Kitingan, for committing corruption, then you will probably changed your perception on this AG.
You might find that this AG used to have the zeal to want to eradicate corruption when he was young serving as a Senior DPP officer but it is strange that he is reluctant to show his such zeal now after he has sat in the seat of the AG, which is said to be the most powerful man in the legal circle of Malaysia.
To be frank, since the time when this man was designated as the heir-apparent of the former of AG, many prominent and experienced Senior DPP officers who worked in the AG’s Chamber as this man’s right-hand men had already chosen to resign or retire early because those righteous men could no longer stand working with an immediate boss who had political motive in commencing a prosecution against Anwar Ibrahim in 1998. Therefore, it is not a surprised for us to find that the current AG does not know too much about the development of many current events in relation to the judicial cases of the United Kingdom because he is really short-handed in terms of having a knowledgeable and brilliant aide such as the one called Francis Ng Aik Guan, whom he used to have many years ago.
#32 by Jaswant on Wednesday, 29 July 2009 - 10:38 pm
Aik Guan resigned because there is a lot more money to be made as a defence lawyer than a government prosecutor.
#33 by Onlooker Politics on Thursday, 30 July 2009 - 12:13 am
Jaswant,
As far as I know, Francis Ng Aik Guan is a God-fearing person. Money cannot touch Aik Guan too easily! Please clean up your dirty mouth first before you utter such a dirty insult upon a righteous man!
#34 by Jaswant on Thursday, 30 July 2009 - 5:16 am
Did I cast aspersions on his character with that statement?? Aik Guan left the government service in the late 80s or was it in 1990, like many other prosecutors did because there is money to be made as a defence lawyer. They pay you peanuts in government service. There’s nothing wrong with that.
So now you go and wash your mouth with somebody’s soap. Next time buy your own.