Source: Asia Sentinel
Anonymous letter sets off a wave of accusations about an opposition aide's alleged suicide
Hishamuddin Hashim, a top Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission official, allegedly conspired with Mohammad Khir Toyo, a leading United Malays National Organization politician, to start corruption probes into opposition politicians, according to an explosive unsigned letter sent to officials looking into the death of a young opposition political aide who died under mysterious circumstances on July 16.
There is no way to ascertain if the letter is authentic. However, with authorities conducting a probe into its origin, it seems certain to stir up a considerable outcry among pro and anti-government forces, with UMNO officials charging it was faked by the opposition to stir up fury at the ruling national coalition.
The five-page letter, typed in Malay language on anti-corruption commission stationery, was handed to Gobind Singh Deo, a lawyer holding a watching brief for the family of the dead man, Teoh Beng Hock, outside the courtroom where an inquest is being held into Teoh's death. It was also sent to top members of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition including opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Gobind handed the letter over to the Coroner's Court, which directed police to conduct an investigation into its contents.
Although Corner Azmil Muntapha Abas told lawyers not to reveal any information about the letter's contents, it has since found its way into a wide variety of Internet publications in Kuala Lumpur. Among other features, it alleges widespread, long-time continuing corruption on the part of Hishamuddin, the MACC's deputy director in the Selangor office, partly in covering up illegal activities by Khir Toyo.
Teoh was said to have driven himself into the inquiry, police said, adding that he had volunteered to appear for questioning. He was found dead on the fifth-floor rooftop of a building adjacent to the MACC offices after being questioned on the 14th floor from 5 pm on the 15th until 3:45 am the next morning. It would be bizarre indeed, or an act of stunning stupidity, for anti-corruption officials to throw the subject of an investigation off their own building.
The letter doesn't say how Teoh died or if Hishamuddin was involved in the death. But it does raise several controversial points, including an allegation that Hishamuddin didn't clock out from work when he left the MACC office the night of Teoh's death and that he didn't provide DNA samples, as other MACC officers did. Hishamuddin, the letter-writer said, gave a sample privately at some later time.
Questions have arisen over the DNA of an unnamed individual which was found on Teoh's belt after his death. Hishamuddin, the letter writer said, had a habit of towing suspects around by their belts. When Teoh was found, his belt had been snapped in back, officials said.
Khir Toyo publicly denied the allegations, telling the Malaysia Insider website in a telephone conversation from Mecca in Saudi Arabia that he didn't know the MACC official and offering to sue whoever wrote the letter if he or she can be found.
The death of Teoh, a 28-year-old aide to Selangor State Executive Council Member Ean Yong Hian Wah, has been called a suicide by government-appointed pathologists testifying at the inquest. However, it has caused outrage across Malaysia, particularly in the Chinese community, which largely believes Teoh died in an interrogation gone wrong. The case has thus had a corrosive effect on relations between the dominant ethnic Malay population and the Chinese, who make up about 25 percent of the country's population.
Teoh, who was supposed to get married on the following Saturday to his fiancé, who was two months pregnant, was called in for questioning on July 15, reportedly about RM2,400 worth of flags his boss had bought for a Merdeka (freedom) Day celebration using public funds.
The investigation is one of a spate of probes the MACC has initiated into opposition politicians, according to observers in Kuala Lumpur. Although the agency's defenders argue that UMNO officials are also being investigated, the bulk of the inquiries appear to be directed towards the opposition, while some really big ones involving Barisan officials have gone nowhere. The biggest one to currently catch the public's eye was a decision not to look into the award of a contract to develop Port Klang dock facilities west of Kuala Lumpur although a confidential Price WaterhouseCoopers audit which was later made public alleged massive fraud that appeared to be connected to top officials of the Malaysian Chinese Party, a component of the ruling ethnic coalition.
Khir Toyo, the former Selangor chief minister, lost his post in March 2008 elections after a marathon series of scandals including allegations that the former dentist had amassed enough riches to build himself a resort-like home valued at RM24 million (US$6.7million) in an exclusive neighborhood of Shah Alam, a Kuala Lumpur suburb. He has increasingly emerged as an UMNO powerhouse as opposition leader in the state despite the loss to the Pakatan Rakyat and as an associate of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
The inquest is to continue on Monday pending the investigation into the letter.
Anonymous letter sets off a wave of accusations about an opposition aide's alleged suicide
Hishamuddin Hashim, a top Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission official, allegedly conspired with Mohammad Khir Toyo, a leading United Malays National Organization politician, to start corruption probes into opposition politicians, according to an explosive unsigned letter sent to officials looking into the death of a young opposition political aide who died under mysterious circumstances on July 16.
There is no way to ascertain if the letter is authentic. However, with authorities conducting a probe into its origin, it seems certain to stir up a considerable outcry among pro and anti-government forces, with UMNO officials charging it was faked by the opposition to stir up fury at the ruling national coalition.
The five-page letter, typed in Malay language on anti-corruption commission stationery, was handed to Gobind Singh Deo, a lawyer holding a watching brief for the family of the dead man, Teoh Beng Hock, outside the courtroom where an inquest is being held into Teoh's death. It was also sent to top members of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition including opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Gobind handed the letter over to the Coroner's Court, which directed police to conduct an investigation into its contents.
Although Corner Azmil Muntapha Abas told lawyers not to reveal any information about the letter's contents, it has since found its way into a wide variety of Internet publications in Kuala Lumpur. Among other features, it alleges widespread, long-time continuing corruption on the part of Hishamuddin, the MACC's deputy director in the Selangor office, partly in covering up illegal activities by Khir Toyo.
Teoh was said to have driven himself into the inquiry, police said, adding that he had volunteered to appear for questioning. He was found dead on the fifth-floor rooftop of a building adjacent to the MACC offices after being questioned on the 14th floor from 5 pm on the 15th until 3:45 am the next morning. It would be bizarre indeed, or an act of stunning stupidity, for anti-corruption officials to throw the subject of an investigation off their own building.
The letter doesn't say how Teoh died or if Hishamuddin was involved in the death. But it does raise several controversial points, including an allegation that Hishamuddin didn't clock out from work when he left the MACC office the night of Teoh's death and that he didn't provide DNA samples, as other MACC officers did. Hishamuddin, the letter-writer said, gave a sample privately at some later time.
Questions have arisen over the DNA of an unnamed individual which was found on Teoh's belt after his death. Hishamuddin, the letter writer said, had a habit of towing suspects around by their belts. When Teoh was found, his belt had been snapped in back, officials said.
Khir Toyo publicly denied the allegations, telling the Malaysia Insider website in a telephone conversation from Mecca in Saudi Arabia that he didn't know the MACC official and offering to sue whoever wrote the letter if he or she can be found.
The death of Teoh, a 28-year-old aide to Selangor State Executive Council Member Ean Yong Hian Wah, has been called a suicide by government-appointed pathologists testifying at the inquest. However, it has caused outrage across Malaysia, particularly in the Chinese community, which largely believes Teoh died in an interrogation gone wrong. The case has thus had a corrosive effect on relations between the dominant ethnic Malay population and the Chinese, who make up about 25 percent of the country's population.
Teoh, who was supposed to get married on the following Saturday to his fiancé, who was two months pregnant, was called in for questioning on July 15, reportedly about RM2,400 worth of flags his boss had bought for a Merdeka (freedom) Day celebration using public funds.
The investigation is one of a spate of probes the MACC has initiated into opposition politicians, according to observers in Kuala Lumpur. Although the agency's defenders argue that UMNO officials are also being investigated, the bulk of the inquiries appear to be directed towards the opposition, while some really big ones involving Barisan officials have gone nowhere. The biggest one to currently catch the public's eye was a decision not to look into the award of a contract to develop Port Klang dock facilities west of Kuala Lumpur although a confidential Price WaterhouseCoopers audit which was later made public alleged massive fraud that appeared to be connected to top officials of the Malaysian Chinese Party, a component of the ruling ethnic coalition.
Khir Toyo, the former Selangor chief minister, lost his post in March 2008 elections after a marathon series of scandals including allegations that the former dentist had amassed enough riches to build himself a resort-like home valued at RM24 million (US$6.7million) in an exclusive neighborhood of Shah Alam, a Kuala Lumpur suburb. He has increasingly emerged as an UMNO powerhouse as opposition leader in the state despite the loss to the Pakatan Rakyat and as an associate of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
The inquest is to continue on Monday pending the investigation into the letter.
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