THE INDIAN MURDERED BY PDRM!

I make no apology for the following article but I would sincerely caution that the images of Kugan that follows are quite disturbing – disturbing maybe but we need to be reminded that this is a human being that we are talking about – and we need to see what has been done to one of our own by PDRM.

This was the headline in The Malaysian Insider today.

Traffic chief: 27.4pc more deaths doesn’t mean Ops Sikap failed.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 – The increase in death toll in the 20th Ops Sikap, which ended last Sunday, does not reflect the failure of the operation.

The police would prefer the grim figure be seen as a “wake-up call” to road users in the country.

My friend two words for the Traffic Police Chief. The first letter of the first word is F. He tells us that PDRM would prefer the grim figure be seen as a:

“wake-up call” !!!

Hey Chief what if we want PDRM to take the grim figure of people dying in PDRM’s custody as a “WAKE UP CALL too?” Look at this image. It is of KUGAN. Dead murdered by PDRM.

Look at his face. How he must have suffered! What would posses the Police to beat a man like an animal…no even animals are treated better! You must have made his last few days, his last few hours…his last few minutes on this earth to be one of much physical and mental pain…or is it true what they say that when your thresh hold of pain is arrived at…the mind switches off and your body waits for death? If that is so I am sure that Kugan must have switched off many times because of the injuries that he sustained not one of them would have been enough to cause instant death – instead he was taken onto a lingering and painful journey over a period of time…five days of suffering…always towards death. PDRM must have driven him insane with pain.

Torture in Police custody? Why? Do these torturers act without fear of prosecution because of the lack of judicial punishment and the shortcomings in our criminal justice system? Do corruption, official acquiescence and a lack of adequate human rights training for these mata mata means that torture is routine in our Police Station? The place where we go to seek protection and help in times of our trouble? Or does our government choose torture of its Rakyats as the most efficient means to control and to terrorize its own Rakyat into passivity and submission! Again let us look at Kugan here. Do not turn away my friends. If it hard for us to look as it was hard for me – just think what he had to go through in his last days on this earth – in that Petaling Jaya Police Station! So that we know that we are talking about a fellow human being here. Look and remember.

There is a clear link between discrimination and torture in PDRM.Those most at risk are the Indians – because they are the poorest and most marginalized of our Rakyats. They are our ethnic minority who face discrimination everywhere – especially so with PDRM. What are the effects of torture? Serious injury, emotional scars, destroyed mind, paralyses…and in Kugan’s case DEATH! Look again here and you will see that he is no more with us. He has left us, he has left his family and he has left this world, as we know it.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its Article 5, proclaims that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"….no one understand. No one! Does it not matter to our government that all forms of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment  - TOTURE – are absolutely and universally illegal? Not really - Malaysia is not one of the signatory to the UN General Assembly (Resolution 39/46)  Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). This Convention, which entered into force on 26 June 1987, obliges States to make torture a crime and to prosecute and punish those guilty of it. It notes explicitly that neither higher orders nor exceptional circumstances can justify torture but in Malaysia we have government-sanctioned torture!

This Tan Sri of an AG classified Kugan’s case as murder but it has taken eight months until now – SEPTEMBER  - for PDRM to announce that the policemen involved in Kugan’s murder will be facing charges this week – how many policemen facing what charges is still to be announced. Let me put in my two cents worth. I have seen how the Police interrogate their suspects. There will be at least three to four policemen in the same room. They do not have the guts to make it a one on one situation. Cowards only find courage in large groups. They would all together have hammered Kugan into submission…into unconsciousness with their fists, kick his body and kick his head when he was down and lying on the floor. They would have used whatever weapons or batons or rubber hoses available to do the job. Then when Kugan lies on the floor unconsciousness the most sadistic of them (and there are many!) would continue hitting Kugan while the others go take a coffee break with some goreng pisang and curry puffs…maybe even nasi lemak if they are really hungry! How can they do this without any remorse for their victims of torture? They can do this because this is what they do with regularity – hitting and hammering suspect into submission is par for the course for these policemen.

So please do not charge just one policeman…we are not stupid idiots. The IGP is not a stupid idiot. The AG is not a stupid idiot. Do the right thing.