Saturday, June 29, 2019

Home Ministry shows reluctance in probe


From Sun Daily:

Patriot rails against composition of task force investigating disappearances


PETALING JAYA: The National Patriot Association (Patriot) today joined the chorus of criticism against the composition of the Special Task Force to investigate the disappearances of Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat.

Patriot president BG (Rtd) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji (pix) questioned the rationale of setting up a task force when the Suhakam fact finding committee, led by Dato Mah Weng Kwai, had spent 18 months in a painstaking enquiry before coming to the conclusion that the disappearances of Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat was the result of forced disappearance.

“That decision was announced on April 3. Now, nearly three months later, the Minister of Home Affairs just announced the formation of a Special Task Force to investigate the disappearance of the missing persons,“ he said.

Arshad said there appeared to be procrastination and lack of will from the part of the authorities to bring to a closure, cases on forced disappearances of persons, and that the Cabinet must act accordingly if the ministry fails to bring to task the perpetrators.

“Patriot expects the Minister of Home Affairs to act decisively and bring to books the culprits responsible for the forced disappearance of persons, irrespective of their position and rank. If the minister fails to do so, then it is incumbent upon the Cabinet to act accordingly. No more procrastination.

“Malaysians as a whole want a fast closure to this case. There should be no more feet dragging. Our nation has so much to do, like putting in order economic issues to prepare for an imminent world economic downturn and the hardship to come,“ he added.

He also said that the composition of the Special Task Force Members does inspire confidence of the people.

[...]

Koh’s wife, Susanna Liew, claimed the government had ignored the family’s suggestion to have in the task force representatives from the Bar Council, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and an NGO.

Civil rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), meanwhile, said the presence of police personnel in the task force is absurd.

“The establishment of the task force is intended to bring perpetrators that orchestrated the disappearance of these individuals to justice,” Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said in a statement.

“The task force should comprise independent individuals and experts that could uncover the hidden truths behind the disappearance of the two individuals and ensure justice is done for the victims and their family.”

The Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (CAGED) also expressed displeasure at the absence of the terms of reference of the task force.

2 comments:

  1. Usually it's some Ah Pek from a Cina opposition party that says this sort of thing. Now a Malay ex-military does this.

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  2. PH Govt. owes a debt of gratitude to such ex-servicemen who were trained to be leaders and disciplined citizens who understands that the good governance of a country comes before self or whatever political interests and to rise above bigotry of race, religion, creed, culture, tribal etc.

    That is the difference between politicians who gets elected as leaders whether thru elections or thru the backdoor/un meritocratic who thinks they know what leadership means but failed when finally tasked to govern and prove their leadership.

    But unfortunately, unlike other countries where Veterans like them are honoured and live a reasonable good life after retirement for their services before and after their retirement, in Malaysia, most of them are still struggling to make ends meet and some even ended up serving political parties antics, more out of necessity for their own living needs after retirement.

    Any one still remembers some of the promises made by the PH Govt. towards Veterans during GE 14?

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