Klang MP Charles Santiago (DAP), Selayang MP William Leong (PKR), Sentosa assemblyman Gunaraj George (PKR), Rawang assemblyman Chua Wei Kiat (PKR) and Taman Templer assemblyman Sany Hamzan (Amanah) waited for more than an hour outside the ministry’s gates after being prevented from entering the compound.
They finally left the copies of their memorandum on the ministry’s gates before leaving.
“We are leaving the memorandum here as a sign of protest,” declared Leong.
While the ministry did send an official to meet the representatives, he was not from the office of home minister Hamzah Zainudin as they had requested.
The ministry’s gates were closed soon after the representatives arrived at around 10.30am and were re-opened minutes after they left.
“When you close the gate like that, it’s sending a message to the people that they don’t matter,” said Santiago.
“There is no sense of accountability.”
The deaths of cow’s milk vendor Ganapathy on April 18 and security guard Sivabalan on May 20, both of whom died after being held at the Gombak police station, have led to allegations of police abuse, outrage from the public, and calls for police reform.
In an interview yesterday with FMT, outgoing Gombak police chief Arifai Tarawe vowed a transparent investigation and stressed that no police officer wants to harm detainees.
Arifai said Ganapathy was brought to the magistrates’ court three times and the hospital four times, and not once did he tell the judge or medical personnel that he was abused by the police.
Post-mortems confirmed that Ganapathy died of necrotising fasciitis in the right lower limb, complicated by sepsis, while Sivabalan died after a heart attack.
Speaking to members of the media outside the gate, Sany said he did not want to “make any accusations”, which is why there was a need to set up an independent taskforce to look into the deaths.
“We are here today as elected representatives of the people, and this is how they treat us?,” he asked. “This is very saddening.”
Also outside the ministry’s gates was Ganapathy’s lawyer, K Ganesh, who called on government leaders to take the duo’s deaths seriously.
“I’m very surprised that to date, our prime minister and home minister have not made a single statement about their deaths,” he said.