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PETALING JAYA: Former Attorney General Tommy Thomas said that two cases during his tenure, namely those involving Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), illustrate the social racism faced by Pakatan Harapan (PH ) while in government.
In his book, “My Story: Justice in the Desert,” published yesterday, he said that “when thousands of people make similar decisions and judgments of their compatriots, then society itself is racist.”
“This is what the PH government constantly faced after GE14.”
In the case of firefighter Adib, he said the public outcry after the 2018 incident was in contrast to the relative silence after six divers from the Fire and Rescue Department’s Aquatic Rescue Unit drowned, a case the latter declined. persecute publicly despite their protests.
Adib had been seriously injured after falling behind in the line of duty while putting out a fire near Seafield Temple in Subang. People at the scene saw him and took him to the hospital. He died in the hospital several weeks later.
“Because the people present in the area around the temple at the time of the incident were Hindus, within hours social media had sensationalized Adib’s injuries as a result of a beating by the Indians.
“Lying became so common and rampant that bloggers and other Internet contributors lost the ability to distinguish fact from fiction,” Thomas wrote.
After investigations by numerous police units and the Attorney General’s office, no crime was found to have been committed. He said that Adib had been injured when he was struck by a reversing fire truck while attempting to re-enter a different vehicle, and therefore no fault was assigned.
After Adib succumbed to his injuries, Thomas said that “the public screaming for revenge was abominable,” fueled by accusations that the Indians had murdered Adib.
This led him to request a transparent investigation rather than asking the police to release his findings, which later found that “two or three people” had caused Adib’s death, which Thomas considered “strange.”
“How (the coroner) was able to come up with this finding is amazing when the police, with their experience, knowledge, manpower and resources, couldn’t.
In the LTTE case, he referred to the October 2019 arrests of 12 men for alleged terrorist ties to the Sri Lankan militant group.
They were charged under sections 130J and 130JB of the Penal Code and detained under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act (Sosma), which allows the detention of suspects until trial.
“The LTTE arrests came as a shock to many PH ministers. They realized, perhaps for the first time, how powerless they were in matters of public order despite being the duly elected government of the day ”.
Thomas explained that he was “concerned” about the men’s impending trial as the prosecution’s case against him was weak.
The LTTE’s classification as a terrorist group at the time was tenuous, he said, as it had not carried out any attacks since its defeat in 2009.
Also, as the men’s actions were not intended to cause harm or death, Tommy believed the case against him for committing terrorist acts was weak and abandoned him and allowed the men’s release.
“Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was satisfied with my explanation, as there was no realistic possibility of a conviction for any of the 12 defendants.”
