The families of missing activists Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat are running out of patience with Putrajaya as they have yet to get answers on the disappearance of the two men.
Joining the families are civil society groups who have questioned what action is being taken after the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) implicated the police’s Special Branch in the disappearance of the two activists.
The report was released more than a month ago and the families and civil society groups are wondering what is taking Putrajaya so long to study report.
On April 3, Suhakam, following an 18-month public inquiry, concluded that Special Branch from Bukit Aman had abducted both activists.
Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had announced that Putrajaya needed to study the report before setting up an independent task force to investigate the matter.
They are also disappointed that a hoped-for meeting with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad has not materialised despite sending a memorandum to his office in January.
Koh’s wife, Susanna Liew, told The Malaysian Insight that they have asked Muhiyiddin to set up an independent task force but have yet to get a reply.
“We don’t know why they are taking so long to set it up?
“It shouldn’t be too difficult. We hope that the new inspector-general of police (Abdul Hamid Bador) will make it a priority to look into the findings of Suhakam and its recommendations.
“This shouldn’t be a whitewash. We waited over two and a half years and we want this resolved as soon as possible,” she said.
Amri’s wife Norhayati Ariffin said she is still waiting for Dr Mahathir’s promise that an investigation on Amri and Koh’s disappearance will be carried out once Hamid is appointed.
“The authorities should not linger any longer and set up the task force. We are still hoping that he might return during Ramadan month.”
“Our fond memories of him have never faded and his children are still waiting,” she said.
Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) Cynthia Gabriel said the task force should be among the immediate things that Hamid should sort out.
“It’s an opportune time now, with the change of IGP given the fact that former IGP Fuzi Harun was implicated directly as he was head of the Special Branch then,” Cynthia said.
“It’s a very tall order now for the new IGP to clean the corruption and power abuse in the police force.”
Citizen Action Group on Enforced Disappearance member Rama Ramanathan said Hamid should immediately address the huge drop in public confidence in the police force, arising from the Suhakam report.
“He should apologise for the absence of police observers during the announcement of the Suhakam decision and declare that such an act will never be repeated.
“Start the task force and declare that they will be provided unrestricted access to all data and personnel controlled by police.”
– TMI