Could the PM please tell us when the Beng Hock case will be given due attention?

It’s already 2012, could the PM please tell us when the Beng Hock case will be given due attention?

We, the family of Teoh Beng Hock, will be in Putrajaya at 9 a.m., 2 February 2012 for a Court of Appeal decision on the Teoh Beng Hock case judicial review.

In 2012 we are about to usher in the third Chinese New Year without Beng Hock and with the truth nowhere in sight.

We should like to ask: What actually happened on 16 July 2009 at the scene of Beng Hock’s death? Why have the various doubts we raised gone unanswered? For the past few years, we have asked such questions not once, not twice, but more than a thousand times at the courts, in the media, and at various forums, but every time silence was the answer. At this festival, when families are supposed to have reunions and everyone get together for celebration, we still have to be faced with these questions that frustrated us for thousands of times. The heavy clouds of doubt and specious “presuppositional” answers did not in any way help to give a true picture of what happened on the day of the incident except for throwing the truth into an even more dubious haze. Some would say, hasn’t a coroner’s court examined the case? Wasn’t a Royal Commission of Inquiry already set up? Hasn’t a report come out? It is true that all this the government has done. But do we have any idea who the people most responsible are? Have we heard any agency publicly give any hint of regret? Have we seen the suspects investigated? Have our doubts and suspicions been cleared up? Has the truth come to our knowledge?

Others would say, we should leave our grief behind and move on. In the face of an unconvincing criminal judicial system that has disappointed over and over again, however, we cannot but remind and question over and over again: “Where is the truth that we want?”

We still remember the waves of questioning voices that surged among the common people when the Royal Commission of Inquiry report came out. From that we have no problem discerning that Beng Hock actually carries the expectations of so many members of the public for the truth. Such expectations illustrate the concern of all for a society free from torture and violence in law enforcement as much as it does the importance of the truth. If the truth is regarded as unimportant, violence that escaped condemnation and punishment under the law may come back at any time to haunt all of us and the defence of other social values will all the more be out of the question.

The only thing we are asking for is to at least know the truth and have those responsible held responsible. Without this, can an ambiguous answer really comfort our hearts as the victim’s family? Can it really lay to rest the soul of a victim whose life was prematurely ended at the tender age of 30?

On 9 January the Anwar case brought into sight how much the people were concerned over a court case, with thousands and thousands of common people swarming to the court to show their concern and the power of their support. Therefore, we, the family of Teoh Beng Hock, sincerely look forward to similar support being shown over the Beng Hock case. Here we would like to call upon the masses to attend the judicial review session on the Teoh Beng Hock at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya on 2 February at 9 a.m. to lend us the most needed support and encouragement. Perhaps this is the last chance for our judicial review.

Venue : Mahkamah Rayuan, Istana Kehakiman, Presint 3, Putrajaya.