Teoh Beng Hock's Funeral, Vigil and Public Concerns

On 21st July 2009, Teoh Beng Hock , the political secretary who went into MACC building alive and came out as a corpse has laid to rest in Semenyih.

His funeral is attended by many Pakatan Rakyat politicians as can be seen here in justiceforbenghock.blogspot.com . Certainly, it is not strange, considering that Teoh Beng Hock is a political secretary to an Exco of Selangor government Ean Yong Hian Wah of Democratic Action Party (DAP). One can't help but wonder if there were any Barisan Nasional politicians present to pay respects.

Sivin Kit posted pictures in his blog : Justice for Beng Hock . Generally, Teoh's mother, in-laws and would-be-wife cried over Teoh's departure. Who wouldn't? The death is so sudden and too mysterious and justice has yet to be seen.

Firstly, it was said that there are several media somewhere pointing out that Pakatan Rakyat is making this a racial issue. This is somehow surprising because I was there at the Kelana Jaya Stadium on 20th of July, listening to speeches from MPs such as Husam Musa (PAS), Xavier Jayakumar (PKR), Lim Kit Siang (DAP), so on and so forth telling the attendees of the Memorial Vigil that Teoh's demise should not be placed in the racial perspective.

I can remember clearly that it was mentioned that regardless if Teoh is a Malay, Chinese or Indian, Malaysians should stand together as one to ensure there is justice served to another Malaysian, Teoh Beng Hock himself. That includes Kugan too. In my honest opinion, perfectly sensible. Shall we say that is what 1Malaysia should be all about?

Secondly, I find it strange that somehow somewhere Somebody described the speculations surrounding Teoh's untimely demise to be motivated by politics. We must be clear about a few things.

Why are people speculating? Probably, there is disbelief among the masses that Teoh had committed suicide. It is hard for the public to stomach the reason that a man with a promising career in politics, a father and husband-to-be (Teoh was supposed to get married soon with his pregnant would be-wife) would be suicidal (bear in mind, that this blog is stating the nature of his death is inconclusive. Hopefully, a Royal Commission of Inquiry would be formed to investigate the nature of his death).

The information given to the public is just too little. Take for example, the public does not even know who were the interviewing officers etc. etc. When there is too little information, people tend to guess using their own version of logic and perspective. I am not in a position to say it is right nor wrong.

Teoh himself was in the political circle, it is not surprising that his colleagues, particularly the Pakatan MPs would speak about him in public. Even blogs write about Teoh, Malaysians talk about Teoh in coffee shops. Therefore, this issue is no longer simply motivated by politics.

It is a serious issue with social concerns. What else is going through the minds of the public concerning MACC and this incident? MACC is a powerful and important commission. Its positive image and public confidence are important. Malaysians are also concerned with bigger alleged corruption scandals. Are Malaysians concerned about their own security as well? What are the SOPs of MACC? In my opinion, it will be terribly unbelievable if SOPs are not clearly in black-and-white, authorised.

Federal and Selangor State MPs, NGOs irregardless of political affiliation (BN or non-BN) should address and discuss these issues in Parliament.