Was Teoh Beng Hock pulled up by his jacket and trousers/belt and pushed out of 14th floor MACC HQ?
Lim Kit Siang
Before last Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, the family and the Malaysian public were assured by the four MCA Ministers and the Minister each from Gerakan, MIC and SUPP that they would support in Cabinet the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh Beng Hock’s mysterious death at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Shah Alam.
In the event, these seven Cabinet Ministers from MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP disappointed the Teoh family and justice-loving Malaysians by agreeing to the most unsatisfactory formula of dividing the inquiry into two parts – an inquest into Teoh’s death and a Royal Commission of Inqury into MACC’s interrogation techniques.
This created an nation-wide uproar which even ordinary MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP ground leaders and members fully participated, for they just cannot understand why their party leaders in the Cabinet could be so insensitive to what basic justice and fair play demand – a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.
Apart from the Ministers, there was little endorsement for an inquest, as illustrated by the massive support of tens of thousands of people who attended the Teoh Beng Hock memorial meetings in seven states in the week after the previous Cabinet meeting, calling for a comprehensive Royal Commission of Inquiry.
The Malaysian public had expected the Cabinet yesterday to take into account the virtually unanimous views of the ordinary Malaysians for a comprehensive Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh’s death, but the whole nation was again disappointed that there was no review of the earlier Cabinet decision.
The four MCA Ministers led by its President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, the Gerakan Minister and Gerakan President, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon as well as the MIC and SUPP Ministers who had earlier expressed support for RCI into Teoh’s death should explain why they failed yesterday to ask the Cabinet to broaden the scope of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.
