It is commendable that Amri Che Mat’s wife has finally obtained a court order to access the classified special taskforce report into her husband’s enforced disappearance seven years ago in 2016.
On 26 June 2019, the home minister formed a special taskforce to re-investigate the matter. This was undertaken two months after the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) concluded on 3 April 2019 after a public inquiry that Amri, an activist, and Pastor Raymond Koh were victims of forced disappearance by the police.
Suhakam’s findings were shocking and disturbing. Forced disappearances normally take place in dictatorial and brutal regimes where enemies are put away with no qualms. It is a common feature in totalitarian and police states. But for such a thing to happen in Malaysia is shocking and totally unacceptable. It is intolerable.
But that’s what has happened here, in our country.
The implications are enormous. It means that rogue police personnel exist in the police force. It means that certain individuals who carry on with their work openly, according to their conscience, are treated as enemies of the state. It means they are targeted and put away for good.
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Who are these personnel engaged in this evil work?
The three-member Suhakam panel unanimously concluded that the perpetrators were Special Branch personnel from Bukit Aman police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. It is unbelievable that in the heart of the police force, in Bukit Aman police headquarters, there exists a unit that targets innocent Malaysians and puts them away for good!
Who is in charge of this ‘dirty’ unit in Bukit Aman? How many Malaysians unknown to us have suffered these enforced disappearances? Those with a low profile, those who work without any fanfare, would have fallen victims to this dastardly work of the rogue police personnel without anyone being aware.
We are reminded that in the Altantuya case, it was revealed that others have been killed by the police without public knowledge. So it would be of no surprise if others, besides Amri and Raymond Koh, unbeknown to the public, had also disappeared.
One would think that the special taskforce was set up to unearth what had happened to Amri and Koh. The taskforce was to establish whether these two Malaysians were forced disappearance victims of the police, as claimed by Suhakam, or to disprove Suhakam’s conclusion.
If there was no truth to the findings of Suhakam, the taskforce’s report would have been splashed across the papers in a publicity stunt, and Suhakam would have been totally discredited. That it did not happen would only mean that Suhakam’s findings were irrefutable!
I’m very curious why the home minister set up this special taskforce. The police come under the home minister, and he could have access to the information regarding Amri and Koh without any trouble – after all, he was their boss! Was he dissatisfied with the police briefing and so felt compelled to set up the taskforce to get to the bottom of the truth?
Why was the taskforce set up? We would like to believe it was done in the national interest. We cannot have a situation where some police personnel wilfully act above the law and kidnap citizens using state apparatus for their nefarious activity. They must be accountable for their action, just as the rest of us are. They must be taken to task when they stray from the straight path of the law.
If that was the case, why then classify the report under Official Secrets Act? It doesn’t make sense. The findings must contain information that would be of public interest as the findings concern police conduct surrounding the disappearance of Amri and Koh, both bona fide members of our society going about their bona fide activities. Why hide the truth from the public and deny all fellow citizens their right to know?
The government must be transparent and accountable to the public when rogue police personnel take the law into their hands. It is by making public and exposing the wrongdoings of those under its charge that the government strengthens its hand and wins over public trust and confidence when it does not brook the conduct of rogue police personnel.
It must not be seen as the government’s need for secrecy versus the public’s right to know. The public’s right to know must always prevail.
Mahatma Gandhi put it succinctly when he said, “It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.”
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