Teoh family outraged at MACC chief's suicide theory

By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 – As the inquest into the death of a Selangor government political aide drags on with no clear end in sight, his grieving family’s frustration is fast turning into fury.

This is especially over the latest reported remarks made by the chief commissioner of the national anti-graft body, which many believe to have had a hand in pushing him over the edge.

The family of the late Teoh Beng Hock denounced the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan for publicly insinuating that the 30-year-old political secretary had committed suicide because he “could not withstand the pressure”.

Teoh’s younger sister, Lee Lan noted that Ahmad Said had told Chinese-language daily, Sin Chew Daily, earlier this month that he had been informed of 10 cases of people jumping from buildings after being investigated by Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) since its set-up.

The MACC, formed in January this year, was modelled after the ICAC.

“He also said that if people investigated could not withstand the pressure and jumped from the building, there was nothing that they (MACC) could do,” Lee Lan told The Malaysian Insider, repeating her statement to reporters last Saturday after saying prayers for her brother at the Seck Kia Eenh Temple in Malacca.

“If the MACC continues to make irresponsible remarks which cannot be substantiated with proof, we are prepared to go and see the Prime Minister again to urge him to immediately set up a comprehensive Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate into Beng Hock’s cause of death,” she added, speaking for the rest of her family.


The family scored a meeting with Datuk Seri Najib Razak in his Putrajaya office on July 28.

“No stone will be left unturned in finding out the real cause of death and, if there is any foul play, action will definitely be taken,” the PM promised them then.

Lee Lan, who was the closest of three other siblings to Teoh, challenged Ahmad Said to answer three questions:

1. Who saw Beng Hock jump from [the] MACC building?

2. Beng Hock was classified as a witness in the investigation, what pressure would he have faced?
3. Will MACC’s interrogation method bring about pressure on the witness or suspect to cause them to jump to death?

Teoh was found dead outside the MACC’s Selangor office in Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam on July 16, the same day he was to register his marriage to his pregnant sweetheart.

He had been interrogated overnight by MACC investigators probing claims that his boss, first-term Selangor DAP state lawmaker and executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, had unlawfully dipped his fingers into state funds.

The inquest will resume tomorrow after a one week break.

Lee Lan, who was the closest of three other siblings to Teoh, challenged Ahmad Said to answer three questions:

1. Who saw Beng Hock jump from [the] MACC building?

2. Beng Hock was classified as a witness in the investigation, what pressure would he have faced?

3. Will MACC’s interrogation method bring about pressure on the witness or suspect to cause them to jump to death?

Teoh was found dead outside the MACC’s Selangor office in Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam on July 16, the same day he was to register his marriage to his pregnant sweetheart.

He had been interrogated overnight by MACC investigators probing claims that his boss, first-term Selangor DAP state lawmaker and executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, had unlawfully dipped his fingers into state funds.

The inquest will resume tomorrow after a one week break.