Seeing Nazri's smug smile to the media when presenting the Teoh Beng Hock Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report made me sick to my stomach. Intentionally or otherwise, he has re-ignited public anger and the sheer ignominy exhibited by this Barisan Nasional government.
What made it worse, is his branding of Teoh as a "weak-willed" character, something that is never reflected in the 124-page report. He was speaking on his own behalf, and his further assertion that everyone should have closure after the publication of this report, is incredibly short-sighted and pretentious.
It is obvious that Nazri has no sense of empathy, and PM Najib Razak chimes in by saying, we should not question the RCI report as it had been "presented to the king". I am not sure who would accept such reasoning at face value, but due to his recent history of a penchant for lies and cover-ups, I have no doubt in my mind that this is another cover up.
I personally cannot fathom how a man, who is about to be married the next day and is expecting a child, even under heavy interrogation would venture to take his own life. Any father or wife would be able to echo the same sentiments, as even in our darkest moments, there is always a glimmer of hope. Would he venture so far as to take his own life? I would submit not.
For anyone who has followed the case closely, and seen some of the evidence which was tendered before the court and then the RCI, it would have been obvious that even if one wanted to commit suicide by throwing oneself out of a window at the MACC building, it would have been an incredibly difficult task.
First of all the window had already been established as small, and difficult to climb through. From this alone, we can ascertain that if it was indeed suicide, the amount of effort to climb out would have taken a good amount of time.
If indeed the story is that he did commit suicide by climbing out the window, why did the interrogation officers not make any attempt to stop him? Normally when a person makes a sudden move in an interrogation setting, there is effort on the interrogators to restrain that individual. This question was not even raised in the RCI report.
To add salt to the wound, after the death of Teoh, one of the interrogators the RCI named responsible, Hishamuddin Hashim , was promoted. Was there any internal inquiry after Teoh's death, or any action taken or investigation opened before the intervention of the RCI? There was not. This is a clear slap in the face for the public, that protection of the institutions are paramount as opposed to bringing those responsible to justice.
The RCI members themselves were appointed by the government and comprised of BN cronies - who have all benefited in one way or another from BN handouts - and which Teoh's family had no say in the selection. Evidence has surfaced that the facts were not properly checked, and were biased.
Naturally we are appalled at this outcome, but most of us had expected as much. Najib has shown himself to be an incapable leader, and continues to endorse the current system; trying to keep Malaysians in the dark, threatening Malaysians when they challenge the system and allowing racists to run amok has been the traits of his administration.
As for Teoh Beng Hock and his family, we hope and pray he did not die in vain. We shall continue to fight for justice, and fight to end this fascist BN regime.
Douglas Tan is a DAP member. He blogs at dougtan.blogspot.com
