By Yow Hong Chieh
June 07, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 — A royal commission of inquiry (RCI) looking into Customs officer Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamad’s death would restore public confidence in the country’s institutions, Lim Kit Siang has said.
The DAP parliamentary leader said Cabinet should be prepared to override the Attorney-General (A-G) and the police tomorrow as an RCI, like the one established for Teoh Beng Hock, was the only way to determine the cause of Sarbaini’s death.
“The Cabinet’s immediate task is to act boldly and justly into the death of Sarbani. Let the Najib and his Cabinet Ministers not disappoint Malaysians once again tomorrow,” he said in a statement today.
“I have no qualms in admitting that I have reservations about the Teoh Beng Hock Royal Commission of Inquiry… but Malaysians are currently deprived of a more satisfactory option to get to the bottom of Sarbani’s death.”
Lim added that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Cabinet would be “sitting ducks” waiting for a change of government in the next general election if they failed to “act boldly and justly” in calling for an RCI.
Sarbaini (picture, right), 56, was found dead on the badminton court of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) building on Jalan Cochrane here on April 6 at about 10.20am, barely two hours after walking in.
His death, which occurred while the Teoh Beng Hock RCI was still ongoing, came as a huge blow to the anti-graft body’s already battered credibility.
Teoh, a DAP aide, fell to his death at the then-Selangor MACC office on July 16, 2009. An 18-month inquest returned an open verdict, ruling out both suicide and homicide in Teoh’s death.