PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today defended the composition of the government-appointed task force on missing activists, saying that Putrajaya can’t satisfy everyone.
He said that the government had a duty to carry out its responsibilities even if it is unable to completely respect everyone’s wishes.
“We will see if there are any complaints (once the task force has started its work),” he told reporters after an event in Putrajaya today.
Yesterday, the government announced the setting up of the task force led by former high court judge Abdul Rahim Uda to look into the disappearance of pastor Raymond Koh and Perlis Hope founder Amri Che Mat.
Besides Rahim, the task force will comprise police legal affairs chief Mokhtar Mohd Noor police integrity unit director Zamri Yahya, Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission operations director Muhammad Bukhari Ab Hamid, Attorney-General’s Chambers officer Mohd Sophia Zakaria and Police Commission secretary Mohd Russaini Idrus.
The task force will first look into Amri’s case as there was still a case pending in the courts pertaining to Koh’s disappearance and any public discussion of the case will be sub judice.
However, wives of Koh and Amri had questioned the absence of women and non-Malays in the task force, saying that the lack of diverse representation in the panel runs counter to the spirit of muhibbah and does not reflect the multi-racial, multi-faith character of the country.
They also questioned Putrajaya’s failure to heed the suggestions of the two families of the missing men to include in the task force members of the Bar Council, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and a civil society group.
Koh’s wife Susanna Liew and Amri’s wife Norhayati Mohd Ariffin appeared particularly concerned over the inclusion of police legal affairs chief Mokhtar in the task force.
Mokhtar had represented the police in the public inquiry conducted by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) into the disappearance of the two activists
Civil society group Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (Caged) had also raised concerns over Mokhtar’s inclusion in the task force. – June 27, 2019.
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Posted 6 years ago by Mindy Singh · Reply
What we are seeing there are still certain quarters who cannot get away from the past rhetoric. Unconsciously they are falling back to the old ways of governing the country, which brought disasters to the nation and his own people.
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