Candles were lit, a cake was cut and “Happy Birthday to You” rendered at the Suhakam headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

Tears flowed not in merriment but despair for pastor Raymond Koh, who turns 63 today, and has been missing for 260 days.

The birthday “celebration” was held when the commission's public inquiry into his abduction and the disappearance of several activists took an hour-long recess for lunch...