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PM memberi motif Kes Sauk

Pada 17/7/2000 - Mahdey memberi takziah kpd Mathew Medan. Persoalannya: Apakah PM layak untuk memberi motif? Bukankah ini tugas pidhak pendakwa - bukan tugas seorang PM?

Pembunuhnya tidak diketahui. Tiada dakwaan dibuat. Tiada saksi. Kematian Mathew dan SB Sagadevan tidak dapat dijelaskan. Malah Mohd Shah, seorang SB yang dinyatakan menjadi tebusan turut hadir. Lapurannya tidak diketengahkan kpd awam. Tidak mungkin dia tidak mengetahui kepala cerita apakah sebab sebenar kematian2 itu. Selain itu ada ramai saksi lagi.

PM dilapurkan oleh wartawan NST, Shamsul Akmar dan Letitia Samuel sebagai berkata bahawa pembunuhan itu bermotifkan politik:

"Rakyat hendaklah menolak mereka yg menyebarkan perasaan benci dikalangan kaum dan penyokong berbilang ugama - kerana kegagalan berbuat demikian akan menyebabkan rusuhan yg akan memusnahkan negara".

"Benar ada seorang Muslim yang telah disiksa oleh puak itu tapi dia tidak dibunuh. Mereka membunuh Sagadewan dan Mathew kerana mereka bukan Muslim".

(Yang menarik PM tak menyebut Jafar Puteh yang menjadi pengganas dan tebusan, iaitu pelakun serba serbi)

Sekarang kita teliti apa yang berlaku: (skip satu/dua perenggan)

Kakitangan hospital yang memeriksa mayat memberitahu kedua2 mangsa tersebut sudah mati 4 hari lamanya. Jaafar Puteh dan Mohd Shah, dibiarkan hidup.

Sekarang sudah sukar untuk mendapatkan pengakuan bebas dari tebusan ini.

Mohd Shah telah ditukar ke Melaka.
Jaafar Puteh meninggal kerana sebab2 yang tidak diketahui pula selepas bebas dari jagaan polis dari 6/7/00 hingga 18/7/00.

Semua kakitangan hospital yang terlibat sudah di tukarkan kerja ke tempat lain di Malaysia.

(Hmmm.... macam kes doktor Highland Towers aje. Dan Hakim Hasnah yang membenarkan Anwar ketika lebam mendapat rawatan 2 tahun dulu pun juga ditukarkan kerja hakimnya.)

Rencana Asal:

The PM Provides A Motive by Harun Rashid

Sept 19, 2000

The Prime Minister Provides A Motive

In what must rank as a photograph for permanent posting, the NST shows the prime minister and his wife offering their condolences to the parents of the young Sarawak ranger, Mathew Medan, who was brutally murdered during the incident referred to as Sauk. The picture is in the center of the front page on the edition of July 17, 2000.

The murderer is unknown. No charges have been brought. There were witnesses. Yet both the death of ranger Mathew Medan and Special Branch detective R. Sagadevan are unexplained. Mohd Shah, another Special Branch detective was present as another hostage. His report has not been made public. He cannot have been unaware of the exact circumstances of the deaths. The shots were heard for a great distance. A large number of other witnesses were present.

The prime minister, however, in a story which accompanies the NST photo, offers his version of the motive behind the killings. He is quoted by reporters Shamsul Akmar and Letitia Samuel as saying that the killings of Mathew and Sagadevan were politically motivated. He said, "The people should reject those who spread hatred among the races and followers of different religions as failure to do so would result in riots which would destroy the country."

This theory of race riots is an interesting one, in that Malaysia has not experienced serious racial discord for over thirty years. Yet the prime minister makes it a centerpiece of his political propaganda. The deaths in Sauk fit neatly into his thesis that racial disharmony is imminent.

He bolstered his argument for a racial motivation by pointing out, "It is true that there was another Muslim who was tortured by the group but he was not killed. They killed Sagadevan and Mathew because they were non-Muslims." For some reason the prime minister failed to mention Jaafar Puteh, who was also a hostage and a Muslim. Perhaps Jaafar Putih was not an original cast member, having appeared on the stage at the last moment.

The prime minister said the murderers wanted to "topple the government" because they found it un-Islamic. "They wanted to establish a new Islamic government," he said. If one extrapolates from this overview, the two men were purposely shot in furtherance of this goal. Thus they were political murders.

According to the pm's theory their intent was to foment racial hatred as a means of undermining the Umno party. They meant to alert the country that they constituted a national security threat. So they shot Mathew and Sagadevan in the head as soon as they caught them. Hospital personnel who examined the corpses estimated that they had been dead four days. But a durian collector, Jaafar Puteh, and Special Branch detective Mohd Shah, both Muslims, were spared.

But now it will be a little more difficult to get the independent testimony. Mohd Shah has been transferred to Malacca. Jaafar Puteh, though kept in protective police custody from his release on July 6 to July 18, died under mysterious circumstances a short distance away. The hospital personnel involved have all been transferred to other parts of Malaysia.

It is an interesting theory. Now we await the trial evidence to see if there is support for it. When special branch detective Mohd Shah is called to tell how both Sagadevan and Mathew were shot in the head we will know if the prime minister is correct in his views.