Malaysia is facing a moment of painful reckoning. In the past decade a string of high-profile, disturbing incidents — the enforced disappearances of activist Amri Che Mat, the married couple Pastor Joshua Hilmy and Ruth Sitepu all in 2016 and Pastor Raymond Koh in 2017, the recent unresolved disappearance of Datin Seri Pamela Ling Yueh, and a controversial police shooting in Durian Tunggal, Malacca that left three men between 21 and 29 dead, have together exposed systemic weakness in accountability, aggravated public distrust, and raised urgent questions about the health of the rule of law in this country.
The facts, briefly stated, are stark. CCTV footage and witness accounts show Pastor Raymond Koh being grabbed by men in three black SUVs in broad daylight; a public inquiry initiated by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and later a High Court both found state involvement as a result of which the latter ordered damages to Koh’s and Amri’s families. SUHAKAM concluded both men were victims of enforced disappearance and pointed to the involvement of the police Special Branch. Despite the High Court’s judgment for the victims’ families in their civil claims against the authorities, the perpetrators of the crime are still at large and unpunished. More importantly, it is still not known whether the victims are dead or alive.
More recently, Datin Seri Pamela Ling who was reported missing in April 2025 while en route to give a statement to the MACC, remains unaccounted for even as investigations continue. And on 24 November 2025 three young men were shot dead by police in Durian Tunggal; families, lawyers and activists challenged the official account and demanded independent scrutiny.
Those who followed through the above incidents would invariably find a common pattern of responses from the authorities concerned viz allegations of officers taking unilateral enforcement action, inconsistent or slow investigations, frequent invocation of “national security” or sensitive policing functions to withhold information, and delays in giving victims’ families meaningful remedies. SUHAKAM’s public inquiry in 2019 explicitly found that the disappearances of Koh and Amri bore the “modus operandi” of intelligence-led operations and implicated Special Branch officers. The High Court’s more recent judgments in awarding multi-million-ringgit damages and concluding official responsibility in the civil cases brought by Koh’s and Amri’s families, affirmative judicial weight has been added to those earlier findings.
In the Durian Tunggal shooting case, the police’s narrative was that when officers attempted to arrest the trio, one of them attacked and injured an officer with a machete. The officers then opened fire in self defence. However, such story sits uneasy with, among others, a 13-minute 53-second audio recording allegedly captured during the shooting incident which tends to show that the three men cooperating with the police without any sounds suggesting resistance in their arrest, and the information obtained from a pathologist that one of the victims was shot from top to bottom angle, with the bullet penetrating the nose and hitting the heart, consistent with the claim that the victim was kneeling when shot from above.
On 16 December 2025, due to mounting pressure, the Attorney General’s Chambers ordered that the investigation be reclassified as murder. As I write, the investigation is still ongoing, but independence and impartiality of the probe is anyone’s guess.
For too long our citizenry has wondered why such incidents common in authoritarian and rogue states could happen in our modern democratic nation? The truth is that the three interlocked notions of human rights, the rule of law and public trust in Malaysia are at stake.
At the heart of these incidents lies the most fundamental right that ‘no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with law’ as provided in Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution. In cases of enforced disappearance where individuals are taken by or with acquiescence of state agents and their fate concealed, is among the gravest human-rights violations recognised in international law. Similarly, fatal shootings during arrests that raise doubts about necessity or proportionality of force applied in defence or possible extrajudicial killings. In both scenarios, the victims’ families are left with grief compounded by uncertainty, secrecy and prolonged denial of justice.
SUHAKAM and international observers have long warned that Malaysia’s legal and institutional structure lacks adequate safeguards and remedies when the officers themselves are implicated in such acts.
These cases also signal a breakdown of the rule of law. The rule of law demands that state power be exercised strictly within legal limits, with due process and judicial oversight. When enforcement agencies are perceived to have taken the law into their own hands, whether through abduction, disappearance or lethal force without clear of immediate threat, the state itself becomes a source of fear rather than protection.
A persistent concern is impunity. Investigations into such cases have often been criticised as slow, opaque or insufficiently independent. When the investigating authority is institutionally linked to those potentially implicated, public confidence is inevitably eroded. The absence of timely prosecutions or disciplinary action reinforces the perception that enforcement agencies operate above the law, a perception that is corrosive to democratic governance.
Equally troubling is the erosion of public trust in law enforcement. Effective policing depends on public cooperation. When the public believes that arrest may lead to death (there are also a series of death during custody cases in Malaysia), or detention may lead to disappearance, trust collapses. When the people have lost confidence, crimes go unreported and law enforcement becomes more confrontational and less effective, such is a vicious circle that harms public safety.
To effectively address the abuse of power and impunity of police officers, Malaysia needs nothing less than a truly independent commission with wide investigative, disciplinary and enforcement powers. We came close to the creation of such an institution when The Independent Police Complaints of Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill 2019 was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat. The IPCMC was first proposed by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police in 2005.
Unfortunately, the Bill was shot down due to fierce objections by the police force, for obvious reasons.
The withdrawal of the IPCMC Bill saw its replacement with a weaker Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) Bill in August 2020, which was subsequently passed and gazetted on 18 October 2022 before coming into force on 1 July 2023, despite its lack of public consultation and ignoring recommendations made by the relevant Parliamentary Special Select Committee.
The IPCC is often described as a ‘toothless tiger’ because upon investigation of a complaint, it could only make recommendation to the Police Force Commission chaired by the Home Minister with the Inspector General of Police in its composition. Its independence is questionable.
A strong political will is imperative to revisit, review and implement the IPCMC model to strengthen the police’s institutional integrity and restore public confidence.
A cursory check on Pakatan Harapan’s Manifesto revealed the clear election promise that “The IPCMC will be established in the first term of the Pakatan Harapan administration. All allegations of misconduct will be investigated in a fair and comprehensive way, including allegations of death in custody”. This is a significant institutional reform that the Madani Government should deliver. If such condescending abuse of power is left unchecked, Malaysia will risk going down the path as a rogue state.
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Threads WhatsApp Telegram
The post Disappearances, deaths, trust erodes in Malaysia appeared first on Borneo Post Online.
No comments yet.