Friday 21 August 2009

The “mysterious” letter ...

By now, the “mysterious" letter (or surat layang?) which emerged at the Teoh Beng Hock inquest Wednesday has made the round in the blogsphere.

Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo had on Wednesday submitted the letter to coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas, asking him to adjourn the inquest pending an investigation into the contents of the letter.

Gobind, representing the Teoh family, said that he was handed the letter by an individual on Tuesday evening.

The unsigned letter, which carried the MACC official letterhead and written in Bahasa Malaysia is believed to contain claims connecting a top ranking MACC officer to the interrogation of the political aide, which could have led to his death, according to Malaysiakini.

The letter, believed to be written by a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission insider, alleged among others, how the top officer and an influential politician had worked together to start investigations into alleged corrupt practises by Selangor's Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

It also stated the top officer's modus of interrogation - which involves pulling the suspects by the belt.

Azmil, who agreed to instruct the police to probe the letter, had then urged all lawyers involved in the case not to reveal the details of the letter to anyone. He did not, however, order a gag order on the matter.

The letter, it seems, was also sent out to several other people since last week, including some members of parliament and posted in the Internet at various sites, including in Malaysia Today.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The letter contains allegations of corruption against a top ranking MACC officer.

But I hope the authorities will investigate the allegations if there are relevent & if they could establish the cause of Teoh's death.

But as far as I'm concerend at this juncture the unsigned letter will remain a "surat layang."

lillian said...

no one should be surprised the letter "found its way" to the blogs and others.

Gobind must have passed it on to MsiaToday.

i mean, like duuh!

Anonymous said...

An unsigned letter purportedly by an insider.

Doesnt matter who wrote it but the allegations of corruption and abuse of power are serious which warrant iinvestigations.

Am all for finding the truth. So let the authorities investigate the letter.

Alizul said...

What's so mysterious about the letter? It became "mysterious" only because of Gobind's theatrics at Teoh's inquest.

I've pointed out in my comments in other blogs that, tellingly, the letter is unsigned. If there's no signature, can it be considered legally valid? If we recall the recent Perak government takeover case, we know that an unsigned letter is legally invalid before the court of law, right? Also, it's not impossible for someone to obtain a blank SPRM letterhead if he/she has inside sources. And in this computer technology age, a computer savvy person can easily reproduce the blank letterhead, insignia and all.

As for the letter's content, anybody can cook up stories if he/she has the ulterior motives and the desire. Remember those days of "surat layangs" during Tun Mahathir's time!

As Anon 9:48 pointed out, we may at this juncture have to treat it as a "surat layang." But a more pertinent question should be: Is the letter a fake? Is Gobind & DAP pulling another stunt to force the inquest to accept their theory that Teoh died due to reasons other than suicide?

Because the letter also contains other issues (e.g. misconduct of SPRM officials, Khir Toyo's bungalow case) and thus can be handled outside of purview of the inquest, it's hard to understand why the Coroner had to adjourn the inquest. The purpose of the inquest is to determine the cause of Teoh's death. Period. Let the authorities investigate but proceed with the inquest without delay.

Anonymous said...

Aiyo, just because the surat layang has the MACC letter head, makes it credible?

As the commentator Alizul wrote, anybody can up stories if he/she has the ulterior motives and the desire.

"Surat layang" are also called poison pen letters written normally with an ulterior motive - at character asassination.

Seems to be this letter fits that description.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Tok mommy,

Read the commentary by Jebatmustdie,

Letter from good MACC officers accusing the bad MACC officer.

A good one and here's the link:

http://jebatmustdie.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/letter-from-good-macc-officers-accusing-the-bad-macc-officer/#comments

The postman