When it became clear that Pakatan Harapan was taking over Putrajaya, her hope was renewed and she went to her Facebook and dedicated the victory to Beng Hock.

“His fight for a change in government was finally realised,” she said in a recent interview with FMT.

“This was his wish back in 2008, when he joined DAP. He saw hope after the fall of the Barisan Nasional government in Selangor.”

She recalled that her family had initially objected to Beng Hock’s decision to venture into politics. He was then a reporter with Sin Chew.

Lee Lan said he went home to Melaka on the night the 2008 election results were announced and was obviously elated by the victory of DAP and its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) partners in Selangor.

“That was the night that he told us that he had decided to join DAP,” she said. “He said there was nothing to worry about since PR was now the government in Selangor.

“We were against it, because we knew politics was something very tough to handle and that Beng Hock did not have enough experience to be involved in it. But he was very confident. He insisted that it was the only way for him to help make the country better.”

She said the family relented after Beng Hock said he would be a government servant in Selangor and it was unlikely that anything untoward would happen to him because PR would be in power in the state.

However, in July 2009, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), alleging abuse of state funds, raided Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah’s office.

Beng Hock was Yong’s political aide.

“When I saw the news,” Lee Lan said, “I asked Beng Hock if he was going to be taken in for questioning as well because I saw that the other exco members also had their assistants taken in for investigation.

“Beng Hock told me he was not involved and that there was no reason for the MACC to take him in.

“I told him that if he was taken in, he must make sure that a lawyer would go with him.

“But on the night he was taken in, none of us knew about it until the next morning, when our uncle called my mother to break the news that he had already passed away.”

Beng Hock was found dead on July 16, 2009, on the roof of a building adjacent to the MACC’s Shah Alam offices.

Now that Malaysia has a new government, Lee Lan is hopeful that the mystery of Beng Hock’s death will finally be solved.

She recalled a promise by former prime minister Najib Razak that the government would ensure the arrest and punishment of the culprits.

“So I didn’t think the case would drag across nine years,” she said. “It has been a very long fight, but I just believe that if we do something there will be results. We can’t keep on hoping without doing anything.”

She said she had, along the way, learnt a lot about the conduct and misconduct of government.

“Beng Hock’s death taught me many things. It’s as though I’ve been educated by the dead.”