your say 'It may not have been murder, but was certainly manslaughter. There was nothing voluntary about Teoh's death.'

RCI: Teoh Beng Hock committed suicide

Gerard Samuel Vijayan: Sadly we must accept the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI), but the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has not gotten off scot-free.

The RCI has recommended that action be taken against the officers who were involved in the aggressive and improper questioning of Teoh Beng Hock that may have caused him to take his own life. The police must immediately open an investigation and refer the matter to the attorney-general for further action.

The RCI has also made recommendations for MACC's questioning and interrogation procedures to be drastically reformed and improved. If the government fails to accept and implement the recommendations of the RCI, then the ghost of Teoh Beng Hock will remain until GE13 and his death would have been in vain.

The question remains whether the MACC could have prevented Teoh's death. The court of public opinion is very clear: most Malaysians will still hold the MACC and the BN government accountable for his death in the MACC's custody, since he was detained for purely political reasons at the behest of the Umno/BN regime.

DannyLoHH: Does Minister in the PM's Department Mohd Nazri Aziz seriously believe that we will believe such a story? Or is he coming up with a new psychology theory: that a man would kill himself after being pressured to bear false witness against another man?

This finding is even more incredulous given the fact that Teoh was going to get married to his long-time sweetheart the next day.

Multi Racial: So the finding is that the MACC verbally abused Teoh into committing suicide, but they did not have the intention to kill him. What is the difference between physically pushing someone and verbally pushing someone to his death?

Regardless whether it was directly or indirectly, these officers are responsible for Teoh's death and they have to be accountable for it. It also means that the process MACC used to interrogate him is inhumane.

Teoh was there as a witness. Even if he was an accused, there was no reason for MACC to have pressured him like that. That has got to change. All further interrogations have to be conducted during acceptable hours - within 8am to 8pm at worst. They should be videotaped and there has to be at least one witness present.

If the video is tampered with, foul play will be suspected, and MACC will automatically be held responsible.

Josephine: I really wonder how many Malaysians believe that aggressive or harsh interrogation methods alone can push a man to suicide when he's not guilty of any crime. Would a responsible adult such as Teoh, who knew his young wife-to-be was bearing his child and in need of his care and protection, commit suicide?

If TBH really committed suicide, the whole MACC need a major revamp, because we can expect more 'suicides'. For a start, we need a RCI comprising not just government appointees but also civil society/NGO representatives to look into MACC's modus operandi.

Kgen: What tactics have the MACC invented to cause a normal sane person to commit suicide after just one night of questioning? Unbelievable. How could a person with a supposedly "weak character" have gotten into the rough and tumble of opposition politics?

No, sir. Teoh Beng Hock was tougher than most of us, who would not dare to openly get involved with the opposition in our pseudo-democracy.

Karma: The RCI theory that Teoh broke on the purported fourth interrogation, and thus committed suicide, is far from countering all the other theories that justify non-suicide.

While we are no experts, but suicide needs a build-up of days or months of distress before one is pushed to the point of ending one's own life.

Further, Teoh, who strongly believed that he was not guilty of any crime and getting married soon with a baby coming, it is unlikely for him to kill himself after several hours of verbal abuse.

Malaysian_56f: This was the expected outcome. In Malaysia, nothing is impossible. Poor Teoh. I hope the person who killed him will face God's punishment because we know human-created laws won't give him justice.

Muak: They continue to be in denial and have completely lost touch with what the rakyat desire and want. What is the benefit of protecting the person who ‘pushed' Teoh out the window? You only aggravate the rakyat more and put a serious dent to whatever credibility you have left with this announcement.

Swipenter: This RCI is a colossal waste of time. What they concluded is the theory that TBH committed suicide due to torturous four successive sessions interrogations by these three lying MACC officers who abused the powers vested in them.

I do not see that justice is done and seen to be done by the RCI for TBH.

Quigonbond: Judge James Foong is truly a disappointment. There's something called the ‘eggshell skull' principle. You take your victim as you find him.

If MACC was the cause of Teoh developing the high risk to commit suicide, they are culpable for his death. It may not be murder, but it is certainly manslaughter. There was nothing voluntary about Teoh's death.

If it was indeed aggressive questioning, RCI never found out the motive. While one should not be surprised by the RCI's findings, it is still a shocker. One would have hoped that out of all the darkness that surrounds Malaysia's abysmal governance that there would be some light.

The VK Lingam RCI  sounded the death knell, the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission was stillborn, and now this. The Malaysian spirit is once again deeply scarred.

 

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