Malaysians continue to die in march to a better future
Yes, tragic, condemned, brutal, inhumane, outrageous, terrible, inexcusable, unforgettable, tearful rhetoric is heard, yet again. Not only Teoh’s family members and other loved ones, but all Malaysians, have heard of, and seen images of, this questionable death.
The latest outburst regarding the death of Teoh Beng Hock, rightly regarded as suspicious, is heard all over again. Malaysia Boleh! In this instance, Malaysians show they are humans, with emotions, and they can differentiate fact from fiction, among other things.
Allow me to put this scene in a “Malaysia Boleh” perspective. I am convinced that the BN knows only too well the mentality, or reality, of the vast majority of Malaysian voters. So this latest event, by the MACC, the newest member of the BN’s extended family, of Teoh’s death while in MACC custody will be only a minor hiccup.
If we take this latest death further, politics in Malaysia merely continues along its dark journey. Political death has arrived. Other deaths in police custody, mysterious deaths without investigations or without credible investigations, as in several cases of the Sarawak Penan, have mostly been forgotten. The late Long Kerong Penan chief, Kelesau Naan, for example, died in December 2007, without any credible investigation. He died for his struggle to defend his people’s rights.
Malaysians, and people the entire world over, know the BN has no qualms about using institutional means to get rid of dissent, political or otherwise. The BN uses the infamous Internal Security Act (ISA), Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act and others, in partnership with the police, the attorney-general, the anti-corruption commission and even the judiciary to have dissidents incarcerated, incommunicado, and basically banished from public scrutiny. The old saying, “out of sight, out of mind” is very applicable indeed.
Malaysia has not followed wholesale the practice of the Philippines’ Marcos, and a similar dictator, Indonesia’s Soeharto, of killing off dissidents. Malaysian and Singaporean elites continue to use incarceration as a means to their end – to stay in power at all cost.
