The inquest into Teoh Beng Hock’s death was getting to be boring. Many witnesses were called, but there was no earth-shaking revelation or definitive discovery. Experts came and went, ho-humming with theories and speculations, and the impossible possibility that Teoh had committed suicide. It looked for a while as if the inquest was just the type of officious motion that would lead nowhere.

The lovely thing about being a Malaysian is that once in a long while, a pleasant surprise springs upon you when you least expect it. One such surprise was the political tsunami in March last year.

Earlier this week, another surprise was sprung upon unsuspecting Malaysians. Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo submitted a mysterious letter to magistrate Azmil Mustapha Abas who is acting as the coroner in the inquest. After reading the five-page letter, the magistrate ordered the police investigating officer ASP Ahmad Asri Zainal to look into matters raised in the letter immediately, and the court was adjourned.

The Internet was abuzz with all kinds of speculations regarding the content of this mysterious letter written in by an anonymous person. Apparently it was sent to quite a few persons including some members of parliament. Despite some dispute over whether the magistrate had imposed a gag order on the letter, it was impossible for it to remain a secret for long.

Sure enough, we had to wait for the indomitable Raja Petra Kamarudin to post the content of the letter on his website Malaysia Today. Within hours, it was translated into English and Chinese, and went the round in cyberspace like wild fire. The comments that exploded on blogs and websites was nothing less than deafening.

Writers claim to be MACC officers

We all know anonymous letters are seldom taken seriously in Malaysia. They are mostly malicious poison-pen letters written out of spite for certain individuals by throwing all kinds of unsubstantiated allegations against them. The common thinking is that if a person is afraid of putting his name in a letter he writes, then there is no credibility to the claims in his letter.

But the mysterious letter that surfaced in Teoh’s inquest is different. It is written with a MACC letterhead by writers who claim to be MACC officers who cannot tolerate the corruption and abuse of power within their organisation. The style of writing and the tone of the voice suggest no malice at all, but plenty of anguish for justice to be done. This looks like a whistle-blower’s letter.

A whistle-blower is one who blows the whistle on wrongdoings by individuals and a group of people within his organisation. The term is derived from the practice of the English cops called “Bobbies”, whenever they discover the commission of a crime in public places, to alert other law-enforcement officers and members of the public.

In 2007, we have our own famous whistle-blower Mohamad Abdul Ramli Manan, the former ACA Sabah chief. Just prior to his retirement, he made the explosive revelation about allegations of massive corruption and sexual assault by his boss, the ACA chief Zukipli Mat Nor. Malaysiakini carried his allegations and broke the story to the world.

The police grilled him for 10 hours but nothing seemed to have been done after that. A Parliamentary Select Committee set up to investigate both Zukipli and Ramli was called off. Until today, I cannot recall whether the case was indeed investigated thoroughly during those days before the political tsunami in 2008. That episode probably had something with the setting up of the MACC to replace the old ACA.

Upon his retirement, Ramli discovered to his dismay that the government had held back his pension and other benefits, and he had to make ends meet by working part-time in a law firm. He did sue the government for what he claimed was rightfully his. Can somebody tell me whether he has been successful in his court battle? We Malaysians do have such short memory.

Whistle-blowing takes great courage

Ramli’s persecution does go to show why people generally are reluctant to be whistle-blowers. They tend to be regarded by their colleagues and their superiors as “snitchers” and “traitors” to their co-workers in their own organisation, especially in uniformed organisations like the police and the MACC. They must be fearing for their life after they have blown the whistle. Whistle blowing takes great courage and personal integrity.

In recent times, the person synonymous with whistle-blowing is probably Jeffery Wigan. He was the one-time top executive with the huge American tobacco firm Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp, making US$300,000 per year.

He blew the whistle on his former employer’s lies about the danger and addiction of smoking, and his deposition in a Mississippi courtroom compelled the tobacco company to a litigation settlement of US$246 billion.

He suffered greatly for his courageous act. His wife divorced him, and he needed the protection of armed guards around the clock. Though he was made famous by the ‘60 minutes’ TV programme, he could never be hired in the corporate world. He ended up working as a teacher in a high school making US$30,000 a year.

In one interview with the press, Wigan expressed his dislike for the label of a ‘whistle-blower’. "The word whistle-blower suggests that you're a tattle-tale or that you're somehow disloyal," he says. "But I wasn't disloyal in the least bit. People were dying. I was loyal to a higher order of ethical responsibility."

Wigan’s ordeal was made into a famous film ‘The Insider’ with Russell Crowe playing the lead role. Wigan felt he was vindicated by the positive reaction from the film.

Laws needed to protect whistle-blowers

Some countries are just beginning to pass laws to protect whistle-blowers. In the UK, the Public Interest Disclosure Act was passed in 1998 to protect whistle-blowers from persecution. There are similar laws in the US as well.

That kind of laws to protect whistle-blowers is precisely what Malaysia needs if we are serious about weeding out corruption in public life. But from the way things are going, we definitely have to wait for a change of federal government for this to happen.

Therefore, it should not surprise us that the whistle-blowers who wrote that explosive letter on MACC senior officer’s close relationship with a prominent politician and his many misdeeds would want to remain anonymous.

If the authorities would promise protection to the whistle-blower(s), and a job transfer perhaps, these whistle-blowers may be prepared to step forth as witnesses in the Teoh inquest. But that would be too much to expect from our Malaysian authorities.

The letter is so believable to many netizens because its content answers many of the puzzling questions hanging in the air. It explains why a former menteri besar was never investigated for his RM24 million palace. It explains also why the MACC in Selangor are so keen to investigate into alleged corruption involving small sums of money by Selangor Pakatan Rakyat exco members. It may even point the way to the real cause of Teoh’s death.

The magistrate was indeed wise in ordering an immediate police probe into the allegations contained within the letter. The details contained in the letter can be verified or falsified by the police, as long as they are not selective or biased in their investigation. If the magistrate had rejected the letter outright just because it is anonymous, the credibility and the moral authority of the entire inquest proceedings would have gone down the drain.

The hearing has been adjourned to Monday. We shall watch closely and find out the truth in a day’s time.

The whole nation is watching.

SIM KWANG YANG can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com.