[A large crowd gathers to greet DAP veteran Karpal Singh as he arrives at the rally for Teoh Beng Hock at Kelana Jaya stadium. - Picture by Jack Ooi]
By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
PETALING JAYA, July 19 – Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders today rallied thousands of their supporters today with fiery rhetoric and demanded the government establish a royal inquiry into the death of Teoh Beng Hock.
Led by DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, they laid the blame for Teoh’s death on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Teoh, political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on July 16 outside the MACC office in Shah Alam. The 30-year-old was earlier questioned over alleged abuse of public funds by his boss.
The crowd began slowly to stream in for the Teoh Beng Hock memorial at Stadium Kelana Jaya here at 4pm.
The situation was calm with no visible police presence and people brought their families to show support for Teoh.
White carnations were distributed to the crowd while most present signed a petition urging MACC and Barisan National (BN) take responsibility for Teoh’s death, and to call for a royal commission of inquiry.
The memorial began with the crowd observing a moment of silence.
The normally soft-spoken DAP vice president Tunku Aziz did not mince his words in attacking Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“Forget Najib’s 1 Malaysia, we have 1 black Malaysia. We will die for a better Malaysia where there is equal opportunity for all,” he told the crowd. “We should tell the government that we do not trust them anymore.”
Selangor executive councillor Dr Xavier Jeyakumar also attacked Najib and wanted him to explain to Malaysians what happened to Teoh.
“We want Najib Razak to answer to Selangor people, Teoh’s parents, Malaysians … what the hell is going on?” he thundered.
Datuk Husam Musa, a member of PAS’s central working committee, was also present to show support and told the crowd that Teoh’s life was as valuable as any Malay, in an apparent reference to a story in Umno-controlled Berita Harian today which equated criticism against MACC as an attack on Malay institutions.
“If you kill a man, you have killed humanity. There is no doubt that Beng Hock was murdered. Beng Hock is our hero, his family are also heroes,” he said.
The PR leaders also expressed their belief that the public had lost confidence in the police as well and called for the resignation of the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan.
“Why don’t we trust them? They are suppose to be our friends? They are suppose to be our protectors? We pay their salary, we are their paymasters!” Lim kit Siang told the applauding crowd.
Lim also called for MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan to step down.
“We want the director general of MACC to resign and the Cabinet to take responsibility because the MACC acted under the directive of the Cabinet,” he said.
However the biggest cheer went to Selangor Speaker Teng Chang Khim. He received a five-minute standing ovation when he related how he was able to kick former Selangor MB Datuk Seri Mohd Khir Toyo out of the state assembly while the MACC failed to act on allegations surrounding the Umno leader’s palatial mansion.
The leaders also mocked the MACC for targeting Teoh over allegations surrounding the allocation of flags worth RM2,400 in Ean Yong Hian Wah’s constituency of Seri Kembangan while no action has been taken in other more significant cases like the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) RM12.5 billion scandal.
“When we saw Teoh Beng Hock lying helplessly on the ground, we also felt helpless because the government and authorities that were supposed to protect us have now become oppressors,” Guan Eng, who is also DAP secretary-general, told the crowd.
Selangor MB Khalid said that there were too many questions that remained unanswered.
“This is not about politics, activists or race. This is about justice,” Khalid said.
The memorial ended with DAP national chairman Karpal Singh announcing the party would soon take the MACC to court over Teoh’s death.
After the speeches, PR supporters were seen burning copies of Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia to express their anger over the articles criticising the opposition for allegedly politicising Teoh’s death.
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