One year has passed…Raymond Koh is still missing

13th Feb 2018

By Steven Sim

PASTOR Raymond Koh was abducted in broad daylight on 13 February 2017. The world watched in horror the CCTV footage of the well-executed kidnapping.

Former Inspector-General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar said that the police had formed a special task force to investigate this matter.

In August 2017, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) announced that they will conduct a public inquiry into this matter along with other cases of disappeared persons, namely, Amri Che Mat and Joshua and Ruth Hilmi.

On 16 January 2018, 12 days into the public hearing, Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun told SUHAKAM to stop the inquiry. The reason given was that a suspect, Lam Chang Nam, has been charged in court over Koh’s abduction.

This latest development seems to contradict the police’s own report when Selangor CID chief Fadzil Ahmat, who headed the police special task force on Koh’s case, had earlier cleared Lam of kidnapping Koh.

Question inevitably arose whether the action to charge Lam at a crucial moment of the SUHAKAM inquiry was merely to stop the inquiry.

When Pastor Koh was abducted, I said that this was no ordinary crime but an act of terror. If such incident can happen to a harmless and charitable person such as Koh, it can happen to anyone.

Our police intelligence is said to be one of the best in the world; yet one year after a Malaysian was abducted in such chilling manner in broad daylight in the city, we have yet to resolve the case. In fact, other cases of disappeared persons have emerged following Koh’s.

I urged SUHAKAM to continue the inquiry on Raymond Koh, given the special situation surrounding the issue and the weak justification to halt the inquiry.

In view of the situation of potential terrorist involvement, once again, I call on the government to act decisively and deploy every possible security resources to deal with this matter, including seeking the assistance of foreign security experts.

We will not forget Pastor Raymond Koh.

*Steven Sim Chee Keong is Member of Parliament for Bukit Mertajam.

Find the link to the article here:
http://www.themalaysiantimes.com.my/one-year-passed-raymond-koh-still-missing/