Teoh committed suicide due to aggressive questioning by MACC officials, says RCI

(New Straits Times) – The Royal Commission of Inquiry to look into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock found that he committed suicide due to aggressive questioning by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) officials.

Following is the conclusion of the 124-page report released today:

“Conclusion

We recognise that the MACC is necessary as an instrument of society in furthering its desire to eradicate corruption in all its multifaceted forms. To this end, the MACC was created and given wide-ranging powers to make it effective in achieving society’s aim.

However, the conferment of extensive powers on the MACC without the necessary checks and balances will inevitably result in those powers being abused. Such abuse becomes difficult to prove as the only witnesses would most likely be those officers whose conduct is being investigated. As we have stated, the investigation into this will bring in its wake the inherent and harsh realities of meeting “a blue wall of science’ basde on brotherhood ties among those officers.

The characteristics of this “blue wall of silence” came amply into play in the present case as evidenced by the untruths spouted by the MACC officers to cover up the nefarious activities that took place on the 15th and the 16th. This clinging to brotherhood ties by those officers has resulted in our facing extreme difficulties in gathering evidence to arrive at the truth.

But what is most saddening and regrettable is that the operation that the Selangor MACC embarked upon led to the death of TBH, a promising young man in the prime of life who had everything to look forward to. His family was robbed of a son and brother, his fiancee of a husband and his then unborn child of a father. We can feel the pain and anguish that they must have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of the callous machinations and attitudes of the MACC officers who were involved in the operation. We express our heartflet sympathies on the loss that the family of TBH and his fiancee and son have had to bear and continue to bear. We can only hope that time will assuage their plan.

It has been said another context that custodial death is perhaps one the worst crimes in a civilised society governed by the rule of law. We are of the view that the bulwarks of the rule of law have to be strengtened to eliminated any form of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment whether it occurs during investigation, interrogation or otherwise by a law-enforcement agency such as the MACC.

Abuses can be prevented if those entrusted with authority to enforce laws ensure that the laws are executed fairly, objectively and with justice foremost in mind. Otherwise society will suffer.

The officers of the MACC should in fact be the guardians of the MACC Act and be persons of impeccable character and integrity who exercise their powers with an even hand, a steady eye and an unswerving allegiance to justice for the generation of public confidence in the MACC, together with the checks and balances proposed by us in place so that what had happened in this case will hopefully not recur. As for what did happen, we have made our findings in this report and we therefore leave it to the relevant authorities to take the necessary action.

We are most conscious of the fact that an anti-corruption body such as the MACC is indispensable in a democracy such as ours. Our findings and recommendations in this report are therefore directed at the individual officers involved and are not meant to be an excoriation of the MACC as a whole per se. The recommendations are intended to improve and rebuilt the MACC as a well-respected institution. We have every confidence that the MACC will rise to the challenge and will become a shining example of a law-enforcement agency to be emulated by others in the world.”