The Malaysian Insider May 18, 2011
MAY 18 — Datuk Seri Shafee Abdullah is right that that the public should focus on Teoh Beng Hock’s death but wrong to say that the blunders of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should not be in the picture.
That is part of the task given to the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigating the cause and circumstances of the suspicious death of the Selangor political aide. But it is also performing its original mandate of reviewing the propriety of MACC’s interrogation methods and procedures.
Of course we want to know what happened to Teoh on the morning of July 16, 2009 but a critical element to reaching any finding will be the surrounding circumstances of the case and the behaviour of the MACC. And these were not a few small mistakes as the veteran lawyer puts it. From Day One, the MACC probe into the so-called abuse of power/corruption of DAP reps was mala fide or done in bad faith.
It appeared that the MACC was working at the behest of its political masters rather than actually working to eradicate corruption.
The inquest and the RCI proved that the MACC officials were not only bungling and unprofessional but even more troubling to all Malaysians, sparing with the truth.
There was evidence of cover-ups and coaching of witnesses. Even the security guard was coached what to say as he was caught red-handed referring to a list of prepared answers.
The then Selangor MACC deputy director Hishamuddin Hashim — the man who appeared to have driven this probe — had lied nonchalantly before the RCI about the fact that there were a raft of reports against his officers of abuse.
And the most number of reports were against the officer who interrogated Teoh.
Shafee is representing the MACC and therefore must put his client’s best case forward. Any lawyer would do that.
He refers to the OJ Simpson case. Perhaps his point of reference is rather unfortunate because we all know that the antics and the overuse of race by defence attorneys led to what is widely held as a perverse decision by the jury.
The view held then and now is that the real killer got away.
If we follow Shafee’s thinking, the same could happen in Malaysia. The real killer of Teoh could get away.
After all, he died after overnight interrogation by MACC officers. We all need to know how and why that happened and if the blunders and missteps, the lies and stories that came out in the inquest and RCI had a hand in Teoh’s death.