To begin with, the law empowers the authorities - be they the MACC or the PDRM, to haul in citizens for questioning and / or detain them over sanctioned periods of time to facilitate their due diligent investigations.
There is nothing wrong with that.
What is seriously wrong is the fact that the empowered authorities are perceived to be not accepting another fact. This is the fundamental principle of ensuring the safety of the citizen who is under the purview of the relevant authority for the entire duration of the time that the citizen is legally within their premise.
Hence, it is a categorical imperative for the authorities to make it a mandatory policy without compromises, that no one should suffer the ultimate tragedy of death when in their custody.
Of course, medically things can get complicated when the human body succumbs to the extremes of stress and fear. But even in such situations, the duty of care is with the authorities which demands, without compromise, that immediate medical care and attention is provided in such unexpected eventualities.
Today, as we witness the cases of deaths of citizens when under custody being battled in court, it makes us cringe with a horrendous thought. That is, if there was no negligence, absolutely no oversight or that there was every precaution taken to the last letter with diligence, then we will not be witnessing such grave legal battles in court in the first place.
As the independent studies have revealed, there are many security and safety features that are far from being satisfactory within the premises of the authorities carrying out interogation and detaining citizens.
Fundamentally the state then has failed. And for that the head of the state - in this case the government must takle responsibility.
Even if it is established that the detainee on his or her own free will took his or her life when in the premise of the investigating authority, the onus of responsibility on the authority is not waived. The question that remains is: why were there no safety measures pre-meditated and put in place to avert any such untoward incident?
On a more frightening thought, perhaps our officers are not knowledgable or competent to the score in ensuring that their lne of interogating stops short of a disastrous end.
And so out of their own incompetence, a detainee or someone being investigated upon is not rescued from a potential suicide but more driven towards that tragic end.
The Honouable Prime Minister and the Honourable Home Minister are duty-bound to ensure that as much as the law is given the full empowerment to rule, the onus of guaranteeing the safety of an individual while under custody cannot be of any lesser value.
Up to this day and hour, we have yet to get an assurance from our leaders in a convincing public accountability manner. Therein then l;ies the widely held public opinion that leaders do not care for the citizens who are mere numbers on the voter-list.
- J. D. Lovrenciear is a reader of Malaysia Chronicle
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