One month and still counting after Pastor Raymond Koh’s abduction, it appears that our much-touted and acclaimed Malaysian law enforcement agencies are not all what they were made out to be. From what our inspector-general of police (IGP) says, (reading between the lines as a normal educated thinking Malaysian) we are nowhere nearer the truth than when we first begun - which says an awful lot for the ability and effectiveness of our police.

Which abduction that you know of where the police have the luxury of having a videotape recording to help in the investigation? Even then I am given to believe this was sourced by the family rather than the police themselves. I am asking myself why but then let’s not belabour this moot point and move on.

Knowing the time and possibly make of the vehicles, with nearly all the roads leading into the encircling LDP with its many video cameras, more so at exit toll booths which take pictures both of the front and back of a vehicle if I am not mistaken, and still the police are ‘clueless’. This again baffles my imagination.

In the Free Malaysia Today portal on March 7, 2017 under the headline ‘IGP: Pastor Koh abduction may be over personal issues’ the IGP shared three theories that the police were working on.

Firstly that Pastor Raymond had some ‘personal issues’ and that’s why he was abducted, insinuating that the family have not been forthright with the police. Any right-thinking Malaysian can tell you even if they do not know Pastor Raymond or his family situation, just by viewing the abduction video we can tell that it was an extremely professionally done and superbly executed abduction.

That this is no disgruntled, upset relatives, in-laws or out-laws, neighbours, friends, etc who did this kidnapping is obvious to all and sundry. If the everyday man in the street - Ali, Ah Kow and Arul can do this type of expert kidnapping in under 1 minute, complete with ski masks and then evading all the surveillance cameras, I think the IGP should be rightly and justly worried and so should the rest of us.

Personally this is a stillborn idea to even start with, but to hear that after three weeks, the IGP is still entertaining such a possibility, leaves me speechless.

Moving forward to our IGP’s third theory - kidnap for ransom, I would think any school-going child will know that pastors, in Malaysia anyway, are not on the top of the wage scale. And to stage such an elaborate abduction using expensive cars takes a lot of financing and frankly, how much can they hope to demand.

More so a pastor not of a megachurch setup (disclaimer: In no way am I saying megachurch pastors are well paid) but someone involved in social work to help the urban poor and downtrodden of society, a ministry totally dependent on contribution from supporters and well-wishers. The RM100k reward being offered is not from the family, mind you, but from concerned well-wisher(s), I hear from the social grapevine.

Leaving only one plausible theory

Which leaves only one plausible theory still standing - extremist elements. The sheer presence of extremist elements in our peaceful nation is definitely something that the law enforcement authorities seriously need to address and look into.

If there exist in our nation extremist elements that can stage such a professional abduction of a harmless, peaceful ‘man-of-the-cloth’ ‘innocent-till-proven-guilty’ fellow Malaysian - then the rest of us peace-loving law-abiding Malaysians have cause to be worried and concerned.

This means that there exist in our midst, extremist elements that have decided to work outside the legal framework of this nation and its constitution, playing all three roles of prosecution, judge and executioner and seen it fit to take the law into their own hands. This, to me as a fellow Malaysian, is extremely disturbing, alarming even frightening.

If they dare to do this in broad daylight, not even needing the cover of darkness, right in the midst of a middle class residential neighbourhood, open for all and sundry to see - obviously the abductors are not concerned or fearful of being seen doing their drastic act.

We also need to bear in mind that this did not happen in some backwaters states of this nation but in the most developed, advanced state of Selangor Darul Ehsan which pride itself with majestic buildings, huge modern shopping malls and nice residential houses.

However, all this advancement and development will come to naught if the Selangor state government in general and the federal law enforcement agencies in particular cannot even protect an ordinary citizen going about his or her normal routine of delivering belacan from being abducted by extremist elements who apparently have become a law unto themselves and doing it with impunity.

Our police thus far remain seemingly ‘clueless’ to identify them, rescue the victim, hopefully unharmed, and bring the kidnappers to justice.

Lastly with all the information that is available in the public domain including the video itself about this abduction, to ask Malaysians not to speculate is asking for the impossible. At every teh tarik stall or kedai warung or coffee-shop, concerned law-abiding Malaysians will share and talk and this is to be expected of any right minded, rational, thinking person.

Reading the Internet news comments, you can easily conclude that Malaysians generally are concerned about the inability of our much-vaunted police force to solve this case quickly. One month and counting...

How long more must we wait for Pastor Raymond’s case to be solved, hopefully with his rescue and abductors apprehended ?

Are our streets still safe to move on even in modern, developed Selangor ?

Will our IGP come out with more ‘theories’ to explain the lack of progress in this investigation ?

In the meantime we continue to hope and pray for the miracle, for Pastor Raymond to be rescued unharmed and be reunited with his family. For that miracle we look to God Almighty.