Mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock

BBC (20 July 2009) reported that Chua Jui Meng, a member of Malaysia's governing coalition, has quit to join the opposition Pakatan Alliance. He said he was concerned about alleged abuse of power and the unexplained death of an opposition leader's aide. …

"We see the abuse of power in the use of the federal institutions to harass, persecute and prosecute the leader of the opposition," he said. This was a reference to a sodomy trial, for which preliminary proceedings have begun, against Mr Anwar.

Mr Chua said the sudden death of a young opposition political aide, Teoh Beng Hock, was the tipping point in his decision to join the opposition.

"The tragic death of 30-year-old Teoh Beng Hock is the consequence of one such institution going overboard in its action." Mr Teoh, an aide to a member of the state cabinet in Selangor, ruled by the opposition alliance, apparently plunged from the 14th-floor offices of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

For further information on this tragedy, refer to My Sinchew (2009) online write-up entitle “Mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock”.

Meanwhile, Shannon Teoh (20 July 2009) highlighted three more similar high profile cases happened previously in Malaysia. Among them are the cases of Altantuya Shariibuu, Francis Udayappan and A. Kugan. Her write up is available in Malaysian Insider.

Seventeen civil society groups have dubbed the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock a casualty of politics and demands a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the incident. The groups include the Bar Council, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH), Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI), Group of Concerned Citizens (GCC), Malaysia Youth and Student Democratic Movement (Dema), Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower), Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM) (Malaysiakini, 18 July 2009).

Further public opinions could be viewed at Malaysiakini such as follows:

It's double standards we can't stomach

Uproar over harsh interrogation tactics

Reference:

BBC. (2009). Malaysia opposition group grows. Retrieved July 21, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8158481.stm.

Malaysiakini. (2009). Teoh 'the first political death' under Najib. Retrieved July 21, 2009 from http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/108784.

My Sinchew online write-up “Mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock” available at http://www.mysinchew.com/taxonomy/term/91.

Shannon Teoh. (2009). Who’s next?. Retrieved July 21, 2009 from http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/breaking-views/32786-whos-next--shannon-teoh.