Most Read
Most Commented
Read more like this
mk-logo
From Our Readers

According to what is being reported in online news media and in Harakahdaily , the mother of Sirul Azhar Umar - one of two cops sentenced to death over Altantuya Shaariibuu’s murder - indeed, echoes the pain in the hearts of all concerned citizens in Malaysia.

Piah Samat, aged 74, turns to God in seeking mercy and justice as all else seems so fleeting. Her pain and tears of anguish is shared by Malaysians who care for the nation’s dignity and honor.

According to what is being reported, the septuagenarian mother has rightly captured a singular truth, which is, Sirul was only carrying out his duties. And so why should he be condemned to death, she implores.

The Federal Court judge in its 88-page judgment (and as reported), concluded that the cops were "never instructed" and that the crime was committed on their "own discretion and sensibilities".

Piah Samat, however, would jolt the conscience of this country’s leaders and institutional vanguards with a significant pointer. And that is, Sirul is no ordinary, junior street cop. He is a highly trained police officer who ranks within the exclusive, highly disciplined trained-to-kill elite cops.

Such cops are obedient to the letter as they serve their superiors in the executing of orders commensurate with their vocation, i.e. their roles, responsibilities or if you like, their line of duty.

Yes, citizens are now jolted to start thinking right again.

How could a cop, who is among the select crew stringently selected, trained and appointed to be the bodyguard of VVIPs, act independently in carrying out a murder - not just a murder, but a carefully executed death to the detail, leaving no traces to establish further forensic conclusions?  

Two bullets to kill and C4 explosives to blow that frail, feminine, human body into smithereens!

And now, all we know is that two cops are the murderers and that they alone must pay for the murder with their own lives.

Piah Samat cries out to the God she knows, trusts and submits in piety and faith. A son given unto her and one who she knows to have been a responsible son, father, brother and man to his family all these years is wanted for murder-on-the-job.

An obedient cop

Sirul - as we now know him through the agonised tears and prayers of Piah Samat - is a man who worked his way to earn the trust and confidence of his superiors; a cop who knows only how to take orders and serve the force.

Why did Sirul commit this brutal, most heinous murder? What was that singular motive which led him and his partner Azilah Hadri to do this devastating killing? And as the courts maintained, they acted on their own. Why? How? What for?

The victim was not a notorious gang leader or an armed terrorist. The victim was a helpless, fragile woman who is widely believed to be pregnant at the time.

If we Malaysians believe in all that our respective religions teach us; if we Malaysians vouch to live up to every letter as contained in our respective holy books; if we Malaysians believe adamantly that we are the vanguards of our respective living faiths - then we owe Piah Samat that moral responsibility and patriotic courage to demand for justice.

Fighting for the Palestinian cause is not the benchmark and ultimate test of our sense of justice and faith. Waving flags of protest in large numbers outside embassies is not the crown of our fidelity.

Coming together as a nation of people for the love of that sense of justice that our respective religions and teachings instilled in us; standing up together as a united nation of voices to secure that very justice as enshrined within the glorious teachings in our respective holy books - these are what will bring back the honor and dignity in our nation’s judiciary, police, political corridors and every other institution and citizens defending this nation out of patriotism.

How will Malaysians share in the cries and prayers of anguished Piah Samat?

Or would we conveniently wrap up our mats and join “the killer must die!” chorus, and carry on with life?

ADS