Condolonces

I wish to extend   my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the late Kugan Ananthan.

 

Yesterday, I visited them together with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, YB Dr Mariah and others. The visit convinced me that Kugan's death is not just an issue for Kugan's family, but more crucially, it is an issue for this very nation of Malaysia that we all love so dearly.

 

As a father I share their distress and outrage in the manner in which PDRM in particular, and the Home Ministry of Malaysia in general, have failed them in its duty to care for their beloved son.

 

I share the family's anguish and despair regarding the uncertainty and secrecy surrounding the circumstances of this death,  and by the delays in conducting the second post mortem.

 

I am alarmed by the discourtesy with which the family was treated immediately following their bereavement.

 

I am startled with the statistics revealed in Parliament last year: a total of 1,535 custodial deaths in this country 

between 2003 and 2007.

 

These hard facts will further erode public confidence in the credibility of PDRM, the IGP, and the Home Ministry to protect people under its custody and to deliver justice to everyone involved.

 

It is a loss of confidence that will be widely shared by all citizens of Malaysia, and there is an urgent obligation on the part of Government to reverse it.

 

It is PAS’s view that the most basic human right is the right to life. Kugan Ananthan and 1,535 others have been denied that while in custody. This is a serious breach of human rights committed by the Government, the very institution that is supposed to care for the people.

 

Basic human rights entitle everyone to a fair trial. No one is above the law, not the people who are suspected of committing a crime, and definitely also not to the interrogators and those involved in conducting the investigations. No one is fair game for violence.

 

PDRM has an important responsibility to protect the people in their custody from harm. PDRM has no right to abuse and treat those in their custody  with any form of violence. To do so is itself a crime.

 

I strongly support the call by various groups for  the establishment of a Royal Commission not only to investigate this particular case but also the other 1,535 cases to ensure that this will not happen again. Death in custody has to be stopped.

 

A Royal Commision must examine:

-the failure of the current system to protect those in custody;

-why people die while in police custody, and too determine if this is caused by any acts of violence;

-PDRM culture, and if it condones violence toward prisoners;

-who are the perpetrators;

-whether violence toward prisoners in custody is condoned, encouraged, or ordered by others further up the chain of command, and if so, by whom.

 

And the Commision  must be given the power to prosecute. Then the perpetrator/s must be brought to justice. Not only perpetrators, but their supervisors and Ministers responsible must be made accountable for this. 

Then the Commision must make recommendations, binding on the government, as to how violence against those in custody can be eliminated. It must be remembered that many of those in custody, although may have been charged in the court of law, have not been sentenced, and therefore are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

 

PDRM staff must be trained to understand that when the state takes away a person’s liberty, it assumes full responsibility for protecting their human rights. PDRM must start creating an institutional culture which promotes and protects the rights of even the most disturbed people, and which manages those in their custody in a non-violent,

humane and ethical manner. Degrading treatment, neglect and abusive culture must stop immediately.

 

I must remind and appeal to the Home Minister and the IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan that by taking people into custody, Islam and fundamental human rights proclaimed that the Government takes upon itself a particular duty of care, because of those people’s vulnerability, and has a special responsibility to ensure their protection and to uphold their human rights.

 

Lets Kugan s burial tommorow leads us to establish justice and not to bury it!

 

Regardless of race, religion and nationality.

   

Sincerely,

  

 

Dato' Husam Musa

PAS Vice President

Chairman for Economic Planning, Finance and Welfare Committee

Kelantan