When incompetent professionals fail the rakyat

Are our professionals simply incompetent or are they part of a cover-up operation?

Let’s take a look at history and what has happened in the past.

During the trial into the death of 15 year-old Aminulrasyid Amzah (April 2010), shot dead by policemen, the crime scene investigation officer Inspector Mazli Jusuh said that Aminulrasyid’s body had been moved before he arrived. Men from the Mobile Police Vehicle patrol unit moved the body, before the paramedics could examine the body.

Teoh Beng Hock (July 2009) died in suspicious circumstances at the hands of the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission. Selangor police chief Deputy Commissioner Khalid Abu Bakar said that initial findings in the pathologist’s report on political secretary Teoh showed that he died of multiple injuries due to a fall from a height.

The government pathologist who conducted the second post-mortem on Teoh disputed renowned Thai forensic pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand’s opinion that the political aide had probably been brutalised before his death.

Sungai Buloh Hospital Pathology Unit head Dr Shahidan Md Noor said Teoh’s injuries were consistent with a fall from height and dismissed manual strangulation.

Dr Pornthip had testified that Teoh’s death was 80 % homicide and several injuries found on him, seemed to be inconsistent with a fall from height and appeared to be pre-fall injuries. There were marks on Teoh’s neck which looked like he had been manually strangled and the injury to his anal region was a penetrative injury. Abrasions on Teoh’s right upper thigh looked like he had been beaten with a piece of wood.

British forensic pathologist Dr Peter Vanezis, appointed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission  to assist in the inquest, also said that Teoh was not murdered or thrown out of a high building because the injuries he sustained were consistent with a fall from a height, such as from the 14th floor to the fifth floor landing.

A. Kugan (January 2009) died when in police custody. His post mortem was done by Ministry of Health Pathologist, Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin. He found that Kugan had died of “myocarditis”, an inflammation of the heart muscle, and not from police brutality.

The Ministry’s post-mortem report was significantly different from the one obtained when Kugan’s family did a second autopsy at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre.

The UMMC report had made no mention of myocarditis but stated that Kugan had died of kidney failure, caused by “rhabdomyolysis” or muscle breakdown, consistent with the blunt injuries seen on Kugan’s body.

The Ministry of Health Director-General, Dr Ismail Merican defended the pathologist Dr. Abdul Karim because he “had 26 years of medical practice, compared to the UMMC Pathologist’s 11 years’ experience”.

In 1998, a 40 year-old Jahai Orang Asli from Kelantan, called Tualang Puteh, was reported missing after he did not return from collecting petai beans in the jungle. His decomposed body was found eight days later. The search party which included the Jeli Police chief, Jahai villagers and Wildlife Department rangers, identified bite marks on the body and pug marks of a tiger near the body.

The pathologist who conducted the post-mortem said that Tualang had not been killed by a tiger. He said that Tualang died an unnatural death and had suffered a brain injury caused by a blunt injury hitting his head. He found no bite marks.

According to Dr Colin Nicholas of the ‘Center for Orang Asli Concerns’ an NGO which looks after Orang Asli interests, the search party believed that Tualang had fallen from the tree while trying to escape a tiger, before being mauled to death. There were scratch marks, similar to those of a tiger, on the tree trunk.

Tualang’s death was classified as a crime because of the conclusion of the pathologists’ report. If Tualang had been the victim of a tiger attack, his widow would have been able to claim welfare aid.

Several people in the area were attacked by tigers in the following years.

The pathologist, from the Kuala Terengganu Hospital who conducted the autopsy on Tualang in 1998 was one Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin; the same one who performed the autopsy on Kugan.

More recently, Dutch model Ivana Smit, died when she fell from a tall apartment block. Her family demanded a second post mortem because they did not trust the findings of the first autopsy done by a local.

A few weeks ago, mother of 13-year-old Zara Qairina Mahathir requested a post mortem on her daughter because the police and hospital failed to conduct a post mortem into her suspicious death. Her body had to be exhumed because the professionals failed the family.

Fast forward to today, and you will find that several people have also demanded second autopsies on their loved ones.

Yesterday, mother of 22-year-old cadet, Syamsul Haris Shamsudin, who died during a training exercise has demanded a second post mortem and an inquest into her son’s death. She was told that there were no criminal elements in her son’s death despite the body being covered with bruises, swelling, blood oozing from his ears and eyes, and wounds resembling gun shot injuries. She was warned not to photograph her son’s body, but ignored the officers and promptly lodged a police report.

Why do the family members do that? Why request a second post mortem. The answers are obvious.

1. They have no trust in the system. One could say that the officials involved lie, to protect their peers and their corrupt system. They also lie to protect themselves, because they failed to do their jobs and be responsible for discipline and following standard operating procedure.
2. The first post mortem was incompetently conducted and was botched.
3. The doctor or the hospital of the first autopsy has repeatedly performed botched post mortems.

When will the politicians demand transparency and accountability? Where is their political will to demand a better and competent post mortem service in the nation?