By Lim Kit Siang, MP for Gelang Patah
DAP will call for an all-party Parliamentary Committee to inquire into all unresolved public interest questions on the Altantunya Murder Case when Parliament reconvenes on March 9.
The latest news is that Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar has refused to return to Malaysia from Australia to face the gallows.
Sirul, the ex-elite force police commando who, together with Chief Inspector Azila Hadri, had been sentenced to death for the 2006 murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibu, is now detained at Sydney’s Villawood immigration centre.
Nobody is surprised that Sirul, who had belonged to an elite police squad, the Special Action Unit (UTK), has refused to come back, as he is clearly nursing a great sense of grievance and injustice for his dastardly deed of murdering a defenceless Mongolian woman as he must have believed at the time he was performing the highest act of “loyalty” in the interest of the state, and now to be condemned as a “rogue policeman” and having to face the gallows without any “protection” from his “patrons” for his act of “loyalty”.
Malaysians, including conscientious and responsible policemen and women, who comprise the overwhelming majority of the police personnel, are outraged by the blabbering of Abdul Razak Baginda, who was acquitted of abetiting in the murder of Altantuya without his defence being called, for instance, when he maligned the 130,000-strong police force when commenting on the motive for the killing of Altantuya: “Only the two policemen know. Rogue police do kill people, like in so many remand cases”.
The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar objected meekly to Abdul Razak Baginda’s aspersions and maligning of the police force, protesting that Razak’s “blanket statement in unacceptable”, when Malaysians had expected a more forceful response from the IGP to Razak’s insinuation that all cases of custodial deaths were due to police brutality.
But even more pertinent, Malaysians had not expected the IGP to be so supine as to virtually accept Razak’s cop-out account that it is impossible to know the motive for the murder of Altantunya.
It is a gross dereliction of duty on the part of the Inspector General of Police that he is not interested in finding out why two member of the elite police force, one a Chief Inspector and the other a Corporal, murdered in cold-blood a defenceless Mongolian woman, using C4 explosives, when both did not know the victim and had no logical motive or reasonable cause for committing the murder.
Although the courts did not establish the motive for the murder of Altantunya, the least a responsible and conscientious IGP should do after the completion of the murder trial would be to launch a thorough and wide-ranging inquiry to ascertain why two elite policemen, tasked with protecting people’s lives, had murdered in cold blood defenceless Altantuya?
In his confession to the police in the form of a caution statement, Sirul Azhar Umar told the interrogating officer that he was offered RM50,000 to RM100,000 to kill Altantuya.
Is Khalid prepared to have a full inquiry as to how members of the elite police force could be bought to break the law as to commit a cold-blooded murder just for money, and who offered Sirul this money?
Is Khalid prepared to defend his police personnel to ascertain whether Sirul and Azilah had gone on a frolic of their own to kill Altantuya with C4 explosives, or whether they were told to do so by very powerful individuals?
Does Khalid agree with Razak that this was a “straightforward murder” case?
Why then was Deputy Superintendent Musa Safri, the Prime Minister’s former aide-de-camp involved?
Why were records of Altantuya’s going in and out of Malaysia expunged?
Was Altantuya was in any way involved with the mutli-billion ringgit Scorpene submarine scandal?
Razak was being most insensitive and despicable when he dragged the MH 370 disaster, with the families and relatives of the 239 passengers and crew still grieving at the unfound airline after nearly 11 months, comparing it to the Altantuya murder case.
The courts have found Sirul and Azila guilty of Altantunya’s murder without trying to establish the motive of the murder.
The court of public opinion, in Malaysia, Mongolia and worldwide, expect more – and clearly justice has not been served not only to Altantuya and her families, but not even to Sirul and Azila and their families, when the motive for the murder of Altantuya is not probed and revealed.
An all-party Parliamentary Committee to inquire into all unresolved public interest questions on the Altantunya Murder Case when Parliament reconvenes on March 9 will be one follow-up action that could be taken to find answers to the maze of Altantuya questions haunting the nation.
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee on unresolved public interest questions on the Altantuya Murder Case is best chaired by an Opposition MP, but if there is any Barisan Nasional MP who is prepared to chair it, I do not see it as a major objection.
If the Barisan Nasional government is not prepared to establish such an all-party Parliamentary Committee, then alternatives will have to be explored – for instance a hybrid of a Parliamentary-Civil Society Committee comprising MPs from both BN and PR who are prepared to serve, as well as civil society participation.
