Stop supporting the torture

So every time you vote for Barisan Nasional, remember what you are voting for. If you can live with this, if you can live with the torture of Barisan Nasional dulu, kini dan selamanya — well, be my guest.

By John Lee, The Malaysian Insider

It might be a bit hard to understand what all this ruckus relating to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is all about, especially since it seems to have disappeared from the headlines now. So if you haven’t been following the news lately, know this: your money is being used to fund torture and death. What are you going to do about it?

Fact: our money pays for the upkeep of the MACC. The salaries of MACC officers come out of our pockets. It doesn’t matter whether it’s our tax money or our oil money — either way, it’s money that should be ours, but that is going to the MACC.

Fact: the MACC uses extreme interrogation methods, some would call it torture. On Jan 28, Halimi Kamaruzzaman filed a police report alleging he was tortured while in MACC custody. The MACC officers choked him, stripped him, and threatened to strip his wife too. The MACC promised an internal investigation and urged the police to investigate. Curiously, I can find no sign of any follow-up on these investigations — as far as our justice system is concerned, Halimi’s report was tossed in the rubbish bin. If the MACC or any other authority has proof that this guy is talking rubbish, why haven’t they produced it?

But torture is one thing; death is another. The case of Kugan Ananthan is perhaps the most open and shut one. Fact: Kugan was a completely healthy young male when he was taken in for questioning about some car thefts. Fact: Kugan’s corpse after he died in police custody was covered in bruises. Another fact: after two autopsies reached different conclusions about his death, the Health Ministry issued a report confirming that Kugan was brutally beaten, and thus proving he was beaten during custody.