Inquiry Has To Bring Closure ... Just kidding.
Inquiry Has To Bring Closure
By Baradan Kuppusamy
As promised, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has set up a six-member Commission of Inquiry into the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock.
The commission is led by respected Federal Court judge Tan Sri James Foong, who has 20 years of experience on the bench.
The commission’s task has been expanded from investigating the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) rules and procedures on investigation and interrogation to also include what the public had demanded — investigate how Teoh died and the circumstances surrounding, and leading, to his death.
The commission is led by people of integrity and stature, but a skeptical public, while welcoming the commission and its expanded role to probe how Teoh died, is holding back the cheers to see how it goes about its work, who it calls as witnesses, and how dogged it is in pursuit of the truth.
Called the Commission of Inquiry into Teoh Beng Hock’s death, its scope of reference is also over whether there was any impropriety in the MACC conduct during its questioning of Teoh.
The commission, set up under the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950, has three months to submit its findings and make its recommendations to better MACC’s arrest, detention and interrogation procedures.
Teoh was found dead outside Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, where the MACC’s headquarters is located, a day after he was interrogated overnight on July 16, 2009.
After a long inquest, coroner Azmil Muntapha returned an open verdict on Jan 5, ruling Teoh’s death was neither a suicide nor a homicide.
Many people, including Teoh’s family, found the decision unacceptable and demanded that a Royal Commission probe his death.
Besides Foong, a serving judge, the six-man panel also includes two retired judges who have over 50 years of judicial experience between them.
The others include leading forensic pathologist Datuk Dr Bhupinder Singh and consultant forensic psychiatrist Prof Dr Mohamed Hatta Shaharom.
Together the panel, whose members enjoy stature and credibility among their peers, is high-powered with enough expertise and experience for the tough job they have committed themselves to perform.
“The commission members have calibre and experience in their fields,” said Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan. “I hope they get to the bottom of the case.”
That’s exactly what the public is also hoping for — to get to the bottom of the Teoh tragedy.
They have been following the Teoh Beng Hock case avidly since the political aide was discovered dead.
They have been surprised over the many revelations in the case, the delays and the unexpected developments during the inquest including the so-called suicide note.
After months of conflicting revelations, political posturing and human drama — in and outside the inquest — the public is expecting an acceptable and satisfactory closure.
Their hope is that the commission led by the no-nonsense Justice Foong can quickly get to the bottom of the case and offer what the inquest was unable to do — closure not only for the family but also the general public.
The case has been highly-politicised by all sides. The truth, if that can be discovered at all, is buried in layers of allegations, arguments and rhetoric, and it is the unenviable task of the commission to remove the layers to reveal the truth.
Teoh, the aide of Selangor exco member Ean Yong Hian Wah, was taken to the MACC headquarters and rigorously questioned as part of a corruption investigation involving Selangor DAP leaders.
The commission has to stay focused and be above the fray and call witnesses, accept testimony and fresh perspectives to Teoh’s death and hopefully determine if there was any impropriety when the MACC investigated the political aide.
The key issue for the commission is, in its procedures and methods of inquiry, to be fair, just and transparent and dedicated only to the task of finding the truth and nothing else.
Public expectation and scrutiny of the commission is high.
Its every move would be taken apart, analysed and commented upon by a skeptical public who want no stones left unturned in finding what really happened to the young, idealistic and soon-to-be-married man that fateful July night in Plaza Masalam 18 months ago.
The hope is that the commission can deliver and satisfy the public where the inquest, in its open verdict, did not, leaving the nature of Teoh’s death unexplained and the causes of the tragedy undefined. - The Star
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