Put it this way, if it were a Bangladeshi who died while in police custody, would the MPs, VIPs, ethnic NGOs and groups and yourself storm into the mortuary to take photographs of his body, demanded a second post-mortem, and taken part in his procession? Would the press give as big a coverage as it does now with Kugan?
IAG to All: Don’t Racialize Kugan’s Death
Iqbal Abd Ghaffar
It was an untimely demise of their beloved son.
Kugan Ananthan, 22, died while in police custody on suspicion of stealing luxury cars. His death which was first reported as due to fluid in his lungs has been reclassified as murder by the Attorney General’s Chambers, after his family and many dissenting voices revealed photographs of bruises on the deceased’s body.
His funeral procession held on the 28th of Jan from University Malaya Medical Center to Batu 14 Puchong looked more like a mini rally. Some prominent VIPs and politicians attended the funeral. A sizable amount of people who attended the procession could easily have been members of the outlawed HINDRAF organization, who could easily have used this event to ignite the flame of anger and dissent against the government.
It is unfortunate that the death of a civilian, in this case a suspect of a luxury car theft case was caused by police brutality. The event triggered an out cry from the public particularly the Indian community of the ill treatment that they have been receiving from the government of the day. It has been widely acknowledged that the community is stricken with many social ills and mistreatment, but the latest untoward incident while in police custody adds salt to the wound.
While a lot of attention has been focused on uncovering who were the officers that caused Kugan’s death, an underlying issue has been largely overlooked; why did Kugan commit the crime?
The real motive remains forever buried six feet under at the Batu 14 Puchong Indian Cemetery. But nonetheless, a number of reasons could easily point to his inability to find work,poverty, or he wanted to provide for his family. But it was unfortunate that this young man had to resort to crime to get access to money.
And to this, we have the MIC to thank for not doing enough in helping the community that they represent out of its hardship. Through years in power, money has flowed into the pockets of the few individuals in the party to enrich themselves. Enough should be said about UMNO and its corrupt ways, high ranking officials and party members of the MIC are as corrupted or far worse than their UMNO counterparts.
The Indians can thank MIC for building a university now embroiled in debt. Indians can thank MIC for breaking up the Indian community into many more factions and groups. And finally, the Indians can thank MIC for giving birth to HINDRAF which now has been out-lawed.
But let not the powers that be and those who are emotional get carted away into thinking that this is a racial fight of Malays against Indians. It never is, never has been, and never should be.
It is a case of police brutality, violation of trust, and a humanitarian issue.
Put it this way, if it were a Bangladeshi who died while in police custody, would the MPs, VIPs, ethnic NGOs and groups and yourself storm into the mortuary to take photographs of his body, demanded a second post-mortem, and taken part in his procession? Would the press give as big a coverage as it does now with Kugan?
If your answer is anything less than yes, then it just goes to prove that there’s much to gain from racializing, politicizing, sensationalizing and getting overly emotional over one Indian’s death as a case of racial discrimination than looking at it from a case of police abuse, brutality, ignorance, and negligence. – IAG