I wonder how many of us were alarmed after the Feb 17 BBC report of the five dead people dragged out of a disused open cast mine in Selayang Baru. The first dead body was found on Feb 11. The others were pulled out in the subsequent days.

We had a first whiff of this tragedy when former home minister, Azmi Khalid issued a statement in response to queries from the BBC. He said a post-mortem on two bodies was conducted and the report issued on Feb 13 exonerated the Rela (auxiliary police) team.

Rela had an operation at 2am on Feb 11 in Selayang Baru. BBC however reported that four bodies were sent to the hospital. We do not know if they are migrant workers or refugees with documents or otherwise.

The minister said that based on the report the deaths occurred about three to five days previously, meaning Feb 10 at the latest proving that these deaths have nothing to do with the Rela operation on Feb 11 . The report stated that the bodies were badly decomposed .

A picture in the BBC report showed a body seemingly quite intact being pulled out of the alleged mine. A person whom BBC spoke to, said one of the bodies was that of his 29- year-old uncle-in-law, Thant Zaw Oo, a Burmese whose body showed signs of torture. Thant had a proper Muslim burial on the same day he was found.

BBC had interviews with several resident-witnesses who were working during that fateful early morning Rela raid at the open market.

Major obstacle

I am not a CSI enthusiast, but we have over the last couple of years seen post-mortem reports of deaths in police custody being challenged in our local courts. In view of that, I would say that a post-mortem report is not conclusive unless it stands the test of challenge.

In this quest, lies a major obstacle.

If indeed the dead are migrant workers, in all probability witnesses and families might be reluctant to come forward with any information for fear of deportation. If they have any kind of papers which justifies residence, they might get victimised in other ways. Humanitarian groups and NGOs working with migrants and refugees would have records of the manner some authorities and Malaysian employers treat orang pendatang (migrants).

Still, the fact that humans die in such a manner as being possibly tortured and dumped unceremoniously should be a cause for alarm and investigation. Why have they come to such tragic deaths? Are their lives of less worth than ours?

We have some 13 million registered foreign workers (July, 2004 figures). About 2.5 million of them are involved in blue-collar jobs which are required to be done, most of which locals have shunned.

We have seen reports of deaths of migrants during raids. We can be sure some deaths do not get reported and the dead, buried in silence. We need to strengthen institutions of democracy that

would promote and ensure protection of the lives and safety of refugees and migrants who are caught in too many grey areas of the law.

These grey areas allow for corrupt practices and non-accountability for actions which endanger human life and liberty. We need to be pious with investigations of these events.

Going to the open market in Selayang and talking to people would ordinarily not be a problem. Ordinary Malaysians and migrant workers are generally open and friendly. I could easily go there

and would be able to get information on the Rela operation, the persons in charge, who ran where, who got fished out of the mine, how do they know that dead were part of the Rela raid?

These are commonsense questions to ordinary people who generally speak the truth as they know it. But telling the truth may be costly in Malaysia.

The problem is there is nothing to stop the home minister from claiming that it is a false report under the Printing Presses and Publications Act, 1984 (PPPA). If any of us entertain this view, it is only because we have a precedent in 1996 when Irene Fernandez of Tenaganita was charged with maliciously publishing false news of 42 deaths in migrant detention centres.

The information was revealed through interviews with over 300 migrant workers following their release from detention centres in Semenyih, Juru, Kelantan, Johor and Melaka. The report was sent to a local press which spiked the story. No one would touch the report. Tenaganita asked for an independent commission of inquiry into the matter.

Seven-year trial

The deputy home affairs minister at that time was Megat Junid Megat Ayub. I remember a rumour at that time, that a BN minister who knew of Irene's work as a human rights defender since his 1974 ISA detention had wanted investigation of the deaths.

This minister and Megat Junid were allegedly political rivals. There was no independent commission. Megat Junid subsequently issued a statement that the 42 deaths were due to natural causes. A criminal defamation suit was filed by a senior police officer. That was dropped. Irene was subsequently charged under the PPPA.

Irene's trial which was longer than that of the former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, took seven years. During the delays, her witnesses were deported. Irene is appealing her conviction.

The PPPA hangs over every person, journalist and news-provider. But we have some 40 other laws that repress freedom of information, speech and expression.

For example, Malaysiakini in 2003 was threatened with sedition when it uploaded a letter which critiqued Malay bumiputera rights in its letters page and it refused to divulge the particulars of the anonymous writer. The matter was dropped after two years of investigation which saw the confiscation of the company's computers.

Malaysiakini was also threatened with investigation under the Communications and Multi-Media Act, 1998 when it parodied the government s commitment to weed out corruption with an April's

Fool joke in 2005.

This year we finally cringe at the continued restrictions on freedom of information, speech and free press under the premiership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. There are grouses that an errant minister was let off and newspaper editors (China Press and Oriental Daily) taking the fall in the nude squats

incident.

The government ban on the 60-year-old Sarawak Tribune and the two-week suspension of Guangming Daily invited protests from media practitioners and human rights defenders.

Abdullah sends mixed signals. He is always quoted on his mission of good governance, transparency, integrity and Islam Hadhari but we are becoming disenchanted.

Mahathir s legacy

The PPPA was amended in 1987, a year before the 1988 infamous assault on the judiciary and the amendment to Article 121 of the Federal Constitution. The PPPA amendment was introduced by the

home affairs minister who was also the prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamed after the Berthelsen v Director General of Immigration case.

In that case, the government banned Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) on the same day it cancelled the work permits of two of its correspondents, Berthelsen and Pura. Earlier in the week AWSJ ran articles inter alia on the business dealings of the finance minister and the deputy home affairs minister. Berthelsen was expelled as his continued presence in Malaysia would be prejudicial to the security of the country .

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that an employment pass could not be cancelled without a hearing, even if the grounds for the revocation were based on national security. (Lord President Salleh Abas, SCJ Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader and SCJ Mohamed Azmi, presiding).

The PPPA amendments did several things. It empowers the home affairs minister, to reject a request for, cancel or suspend a license or permit. The minister's decision is final thus putting an end to judicial review by the judiciary over a ministerial decision.

It does not allow a hearing with regard to a request for a license or permit or to a cancellation of a permit. It makes it an offence to maliciously publish false news .

This was Mahathir's legacy to the fundamental right to freedom of information, speech and expression. There is no real freedom until the PPPA is repealed.

Reference: Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (1989), Malaysia: Assault on the Judiciary