comment When I read about the glaring discrepancies between the first and second post-mortem reports on death-in-custody case A Kugan, I came to the conclusion, like most people, that the first report was either incompetently done or irresponsibly filed.
Then when the Health Ministry director-general announced his support of the first post-mortem report based on, among other factors, the first pathologist's 26 years of working experience, I was reminded of a similar incident I experienced first-hand 11 years ago.
On Aug 8, 1998, Tualang Puteh, a 40-year-old Jahai Orang Asli had gone to harvest petai beans in the forest about two hours' walk away from his village of Kampung Sungai Manok in Jeli, Kelantan.
He went alone as he usually preferred, much in keeping with his namesake - the tualang or 'bee-hive' tree - which towers solitarily over the surrounding bushland, its branchless-trunk keeping marauders away from the bee hives under its canopy.
Besides, his wife was nursing their week-old baby and could not accompany him. The money he hoped to get from the sale of the petai was needed to buy basic essentials for his family's survival.
When he did not return that evening, his village-folk got worried and searched for him. When there was still no sign of him a couple of days later, a missing person report was made and a search party put together to locate Tualang.
His badly decomposed body was found eight days later with its head severed and an arm missing. The press reported that the search team, led by the Jeli police chief, found bite marks on the body and pug marks of a tiger near where the body was found.
The body was in fact found about 300 metres from where Tualang's belongings were scattered about. He had apparently climbed and fallen from a tree, on which there were scratch marks on the trunk like those made by a tiger. Incidentally, the Orang Asli had also reported sightings of a tiger in the area prior to this incident.
To everyone in the search team, which also included Jahai villagers and rangers from the Wildlife Department, it was clear as to what happened to Tualang. He had encountered a tiger, tried to climb a tree to escape it, but somehow fell to the ground, and was attacked by the tiger.
His body was dragged some distance away, consistent with what tiger's normally do with their prey (usually to the water's edge). The injury to the back of the neck was also a classic attack strategy of the tiger.
Pathologist’s findings
The body was then subjected to a post-mortem in Kota Baru Hospital. Contrary to all the field and circumstantial evidence, the pathologist, brought in from the Kuala Terengganu Hospital for the task, came to the conclusion that Tualang was not killed by a tiger as "there were no bite marks on the body".
"It was not a natural death and neither was it caused by an attack by a tiger," proclaimed the pathologist.
Instead, he suspected foul play and criminal intent as there was "brain injury caused by a blunt object hitting the victim's head".
The Kelantan police chief, who was not part of the search party, chose to accept the pathologist's findings which were contrary to those of even his own men on the ground. The case was then reclassified as a criminal one where foul play was suspected.
A police officer whom I later spoke to in Jeli even suggested that Tualang could have been killed by "one of his own kind".
This was hard to swallow, given that the Jahai are a peaceful people and would find ways to avoid a potential conflict at all costs. Even the officer in charge of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs in Jeli intimated to me that the Jahais concerned were highly unlikely to have caused injury to another of them, let alone cause his death.
Nevertheless, as a result of Tualang's death now being classified as unnatural and with criminal intent, his widow and young children did not receive any welfare aid, as was the usual immediate practice when non-Orang Asli tiger victims met this fate.
This also led to the unwillingness of the government agencies responsible to acknowledge that a man-eating tiger was in the area. That is, until others became victims of tiger attacks in the area in the years that followed.
And all this because some hot-shot pathologist thought he knew all there was to know about tiger kills and about criminal deaths caused by blunt objects as indicated by signs on highly-decomposed bodies.
It may not come as a surprise to you to know that the pathologist from Kuala Terengganu Hospital who did the post-mortem on Tualang in Kota Baru in 1998 was none other than Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin, the first pathologist in the Kugan case.
As a result of his findings, a great injustice was done to Tualang's family and his people.
The higher-ups in the Health Ministry may stand by his 26 years of experience but for me it looks like a case of simple calendar seniority being faultily equated with experience and competence. It appears that his defenders in the establishment do not know the difference between the two.
Perhaps it is time for the Health Ministry to conduct a post-mortem on itself.
COLIN NICHOLAS is coordinator of the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns
Then when the Health Ministry director-general announced his support of the first post-mortem report based on, among other factors, the first pathologist's 26 years of working experience, I was reminded of a similar incident I experienced first-hand 11 years ago.
On Aug 8, 1998, Tualang Puteh, a 40-year-old Jahai Orang Asli had gone to harvest petai beans in the forest about two hours' walk away from his village of Kampung Sungai Manok in Jeli, Kelantan.He went alone as he usually preferred, much in keeping with his namesake - the tualang or 'bee-hive' tree - which towers solitarily over the surrounding bushland, its branchless-trunk keeping marauders away from the bee hives under its canopy.
Besides, his wife was nursing their week-old baby and could not accompany him. The money he hoped to get from the sale of the petai was needed to buy basic essentials for his family's survival.
When he did not return that evening, his village-folk got worried and searched for him. When there was still no sign of him a couple of days later, a missing person report was made and a search party put together to locate Tualang.
His badly decomposed body was found eight days later with its head severed and an arm missing. The press reported that the search team, led by the Jeli police chief, found bite marks on the body and pug marks of a tiger near where the body was found.
The body was in fact found about 300 metres from where Tualang's belongings were scattered about. He had apparently climbed and fallen from a tree, on which there were scratch marks on the trunk like those made by a tiger. Incidentally, the Orang Asli had also reported sightings of a tiger in the area prior to this incident.
To everyone in the search team, which also included Jahai villagers and rangers from the Wildlife Department, it was clear as to what happened to Tualang. He had encountered a tiger, tried to climb a tree to escape it, but somehow fell to the ground, and was attacked by the tiger.
His body was dragged some distance away, consistent with what tiger's normally do with their prey (usually to the water's edge). The injury to the back of the neck was also a classic attack strategy of the tiger.
Pathologist’s findings
The body was then subjected to a post-mortem in Kota Baru Hospital. Contrary to all the field and circumstantial evidence, the pathologist, brought in from the Kuala Terengganu Hospital for the task, came to the conclusion that Tualang was not killed by a tiger as "there were no bite marks on the body".
"It was not a natural death and neither was it caused by an attack by a tiger," proclaimed the pathologist.
Instead, he suspected foul play and criminal intent as there was "brain injury caused by a blunt object hitting the victim's head".
The Kelantan police chief, who was not part of the search party, chose to accept the pathologist's findings which were contrary to those of even his own men on the ground. The case was then reclassified as a criminal one where foul play was suspected.
A police officer whom I later spoke to in Jeli even suggested that Tualang could have been killed by "one of his own kind".
This was hard to swallow, given that the Jahai are a peaceful people and would find ways to avoid a potential conflict at all costs. Even the officer in charge of the Department of Orang Asli Affairs in Jeli intimated to me that the Jahais concerned were highly unlikely to have caused injury to another of them, let alone cause his death.
Nevertheless, as a result of Tualang's death now being classified as unnatural and with criminal intent, his widow and young children did not receive any welfare aid, as was the usual immediate practice when non-Orang Asli tiger victims met this fate.This also led to the unwillingness of the government agencies responsible to acknowledge that a man-eating tiger was in the area. That is, until others became victims of tiger attacks in the area in the years that followed.
And all this because some hot-shot pathologist thought he knew all there was to know about tiger kills and about criminal deaths caused by blunt objects as indicated by signs on highly-decomposed bodies.
It may not come as a surprise to you to know that the pathologist from Kuala Terengganu Hospital who did the post-mortem on Tualang in Kota Baru in 1998 was none other than Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin, the first pathologist in the Kugan case.
As a result of his findings, a great injustice was done to Tualang's family and his people.
The higher-ups in the Health Ministry may stand by his 26 years of experience but for me it looks like a case of simple calendar seniority being faultily equated with experience and competence. It appears that his defenders in the establishment do not know the difference between the two.
Perhaps it is time for the Health Ministry to conduct a post-mortem on itself.
COLIN NICHOLAS is coordinator of the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns
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