Too much to ask?

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Jun 19, 2013

The government should remind itself that no one is above the law. Those who have wronged this society must be brought to justice.

The overwhelming majority of complaints to date on matters of serious concern, such as deaths in custody, have pertained to the police. This is a fact that cannot be ignored, just as we cannot blind ourselves to the fact that the EAIC simply does not enjoy the confidence of the majority of Malaysians, many of whom had not even heard of the commission until the current debate started.

Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, fz.com

IN LATE May this year, Utah authorities arrested six individuals for the torture of their roommate, Thomas Chapman. They are alleged to have handcuffed him, repeatedly assaulted him with boards and sticks, kicked him repeatedly in the ribs and the head, and stapled his ears, chest and lips, all while he was being held at gunpoint. His assailants believed that Chapman had set one of them up earlier in the month.

Chapman was fortunate enough to have survived his ordeal. He was released and was able to go to the police with his story. Reports suggest that the six assailants have since been charged with, among other things, aggravated assault, an understated description of torture.

His assailants were clearly sick in the head, and some might say, psychopathic.

At about the same time in Malaysia, one N Dhamendran was being tortured in a strikingly similar way. He too was handcuffed, brutally assaulted (from what I have read in the media reports, the nature of injuries suggest he was struck repeatedly with an implement like a rotan), repeatedly kicked and punched, and had his ankles and ears stapled, among other things.

There is no disputing that he was tortured in the most horrific way. Lawyer and Member of Parliament N Surendran disclosed at a press conference that based on his reading of relevant medical reports, there were 52 significant injuries.

Dhamendran, however, did not live to tell his tale. He died while in police custody. His alleged assailants were police officers, three of who have since been charged with murder. The fourth appears to be on the run.

And for all the outrage being expressed over the death, which I share, the sad truth is that Dhamendran was just one of a series of persons to have died in custody. In the 11-day span from the date of Dhamendran’s death, two other detainees, R James Ramesh and P Karuna Nithi, died in police custody.

Going back in time, there have been a number of other controversial deaths, with the names Kugan, Gunasegaran and Francis Udayappan coming to mind.

The Tun Dzaiddin Commission Report of 2005 recognised an alarming number of such deaths as well as a propensity towards brutality on the part of the police, factors that in the mind of the commission warranted the establishment of an independent oversight mechanism.

Official figures reinforce this concern. Last September, then home minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein told parliament that there were 209 deaths in police custody from 2000 until September 2012. Civil society groups say that the figure now stands at 221.

It is apparent that something needs to be done. This requires a consideration of not only measures aimed at accountability, but also measures aimed at ensuring that only appropriately qualified individuals – not just in terms of education or physical aptitude, but equally in terms of psychological and emotional make-up – can join the force.

Putting it bluntly, and without intending to disrespect the majority of police officers who serve this country without cause for complaint, those officers who have tortured and brutalised detainees, sometimes to the point of death, perhaps share the same kind of mental make-up as the assailants of Thomas Chapman. If so, how could this have been allowed?

It is time for the government to stop prevaricating over the subject. The price we are paying in human life is simply too high. The trend will continue until the government is willing to admit that it has a legal and moral obligation to deal with what is beyond doubt a matter of great national concern in a way that transcends political expediency.