File combo photo shows the four still-missing Malaysians: (from left) Pastor Koh, Pastor Joshua and his wife Ruth, and Amri Che Mat.
YEAR 2024 will begin tomorrow. It has become customary to say ‘goodbye’ to the previous year and to welcome the new with high hopes, best wishes and determination to implement resolutions.
I have a long list of outstanding resolutions, so I have decided not to make any more. I would be happy if I could begin tackling one or two of those that I am passionate about.
At the beginning of this year, I was a bit despondent about the worsening situation in terms of respect for human rights in the world.
Mr António Guterres, the United Nations (UN) Chief, made a statement, reported by The Borneo Post on Feb 28, 2023, that: “The progress on human rights has gone into reverse.”
He pointed to the war in Ukraine, and: “Threats to rights from soaring poverty, hunger and natural disasters. Some governments chip away at it.”
Upon hearing anything about human rights violations, my mind turns to the fate of certain cases of enforced disappearance of persons in Malaysia, and the problem of knowing what is happening to these cases.
Not much you and I can do when a person suddenly ‘disappears’. Only the government is in a position to find ways and means by which to ascertain the fate; for instance, of Pastor Raymond Koh, of Pastor Joshua Helmy and of his wife Ruth, and of Amri Che Mat.
There must be a closure to these incidents sooner rather than later. The families of the disappeared deserve a full explanation, and so does the public.
I think the current government, having ‘compassion’ as one of its principles of administration, can find a way by which to solve these cases.
There are some people out there who know EXACTLY what happened. The government of the day has the power to make them speak out.
Once the truth is known and justice has been done, I will stop barking up this particular tree!
One of the fiduciary duties of any democratic government of a civilised country is to ensure that its citizens enjoy liberty of the person. This right to life is written into the Malaysian Constitution. We Malaysians must hold on to this, repeat, right to life and liberty at all costs.
Retain also for ourselves that basic freedom – freedom from fear of the unknown, the fate of people disappearing without a trace in this country.
Hopefully, the suit brought to court by Susanna Liew, Pastor Koh’s wife, would throw some light into the disappearance of her husband.
We will not know anything much until hearing of the suit is completed in May or June next year, at the earliest. And then, will there be a conclusion, or will it be ‘adjourned’ again?
We shall see.
What about the other cases? Pastor Joshua and his wife, Ruth?
The wife of Amri Che Mat, Norhayati Mohd Ariffin, has taken some action. On May 9, 2023, The Borneo Post quoted Bernama, ‘Court allows stay on order for release of activist’s disappearance classified report’.
Hopefully, sometime next year we might be able to know if the efforts made by the relatives of Pastor Koh and of Amri Che Mat would be successful or not.
I believe we need a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) as an alternative to a direct resort to the court of law in these cases.
Way back in October 2017, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) announced that it would be conducting a public inquiry into the disappearance of these four citizens.
“The inquiry was to determine whether the cases were defined under International Convention for Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, or were cases of voluntary disappearance in breach of criminal or civil law, or human rights law…”
The Suhakam’s statement continued: “We will also investigate if there were administrative directives or procedures that had contributed to the breaches and also consider whether the authorities, in particular the Royal Malaysia Police had taken adequate action.”
You can say that again!
In the course of the Inquiry, Suhakam heard a number of accounts from witnesses; one account was that ‘Pastor Raymond Koh was abducted by a group of men in a convoy on Feb 13’.
Pastor Joshua and his wife ‘were last seen by friends in November the previous year’.
That was SIX YEARS AGO. The official response? A deafening silence!
This month, the wife of Pastor Koh instituted a suit against the government and certain personnel of the police. We are anxious about the outcome – next year, perhaps.
It seems that big planes, huge sums of money, and humans can disappear into thin air.
That missing Malaysia Airline plane on the way to Beijing will be found one day, but when?
Meanwhile, we will keep on praying for the welfare of the relatives of the passengers and the cabin crew.
As for the money, forget it. It has been laundered several times over and appearing in various denominations in the currencies of many countries.
But the humans disappearing under suspicious circumstances must be found. Our hearts are with the relatives and their friends, but that is not enough.
The authorities have the fiduciary duty to inform the ordinary people of what actually happened to these human beings from Malaysia. Whoever keeps them, please return every one of them to their respective family.
That is my appeal. Please join me. That constitutes one of my best wishes for the New Year.
Also my New Year’s Resolution – to help my readers informed about the latest developments in these cases, hinting loudly to the people in power that the sooner the disappearance cases are solved, the better because our government must avoid being criticized by the UN Chief as ‘a government which chips away at the human rights…’
Show to the UN Chief that Malaysia is not one of those countries!
We are Malaysians! Civilised, God-fearing and caring people, ‘bah’!