DAP says RCI report tarnished party image

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
July 25, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — The DAP today continued criticising the results of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Teoh Beng Hock’s death, claiming that the report was “inconsistent” and had affected the party’s political image.

The late Teoh’s boss, Ean Yong Hian Wah, charged that the RCI report had failed to include the fact that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation on him and Teoh had concluded that there were no “elements of corruption and abuse of power”.

“This is misleading, not according to the facts, and has tarnished the DAP’s reputation,” he told reporters today.

Teoh died in 2009 while being under MACC care, which the RCI surmised the anti-graft body was complicit in forcing the DAP aide to suicide.

Ean Yong, who is DAP Seri Kembangan assemblyman, said that he could not accept the RCI’s conclusion that Teoh had committed suicide, and charged that he and Teoh had been exonerated of any wrongdoing by the MACC investigators.

He pointed out that he had testified during RCI hearings that there were no advance payments from the DAP Serdang Aman branch to fund any infrastructure projects in the Seri Kembangan constituency, and that the branch had acted as programmes co-organiser and “footed some of the bills”.

“But unfortunately the RCI did not recognise the facts and came out with different statements in the report . . . if we look at the written testimony by Acting Superintendent Ahmad Shafik Abdul Rahman from MACC during the RCI hearings, it is totally a different scenario.

“IO Shafik told the RCI that his investigating results show the reimbursement and the receipts were matched with the projects carried out,” said Ean Yong, who pointed out a paragraph in the RCI report, which stated that “none of the receipts was an exact match to the amount reimbursed to the DAP”.

Ean Yong provided excerpt copies of the RCI hearing that quoted Shafik as saying so.

He lamented that the RCI had only “contributed” to more questions and uncertainties surrounding Teoh’s death, and that forensic psychiatric reports stated that there was a “lack of information to determine Teoh’s state of mind”.

“The unconvincing attempt by the RCI to spin a suicide will further convince Malaysians that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government is not interested to go for justice but to cover up the truth,” he added.

Teoh’s family has indicated they may request a judicial review of the suicide verdict delivered by the RCI.

The MACC has set up a panel to initiate reforms about its investigative methods stemming from findings of the Teoh RCI.