A Hundred Thousand Signatures for Beng Hock

18 Nov 2010

Press Statement by Malaysians for Beng Hock

Malaysians for Beng Hock is now launching a three month long signature campaign in which 100,000 signatures will be sought from the public to petition for the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) in order to investigate Teoh Beng Hock’s cause of death. It now appears that an independent, credible and professional RCI is the best way to bring about justice to Beng Hock’s family, as the coroner’s inquest has failed to provide answers the most crucial questions surrounding Beng Hock’s death in a believable way. The public can sign the petition online at http://www.petitiononline.com/m4bh or contact us for a hard copy petition form.

When the Malaysians for Beng Hock movement was launched, it was made clear that “Everyone is Beng Hock as long as justice is still denied”. If the government could not execute a thorough investigation on Beng Hock’s death and severely punish the perpetrators who were involved in the death and alleged torture of Beng Hock; If the authority which was entrusted to investigate crimes and protect the people could neither uncover the truth nor answer allegations of state torture, all Malaysians would lose their confidence in criminal justice system as well as their sense of security as law abiding citizens.

In the past year, the injustice suffered by Beng Hock’s family had brought about a lot of tears, anger, and pain. We urge the public and the civil society to turn their unhappiness into forces of hope, and to translate their sympathy into concrete actions. We urge everyone to carry out these three simple steps in order to support Beng Hock and his family:

1) Sign the petition in support of RCI into Beng Hock’s death, and help seek more signatures by carrying out a local signature campaign in your neighbourhood or town.

2) For NGOs, clubs and associations, produce two banners demanding “Justice for Beng Hock, Truth for Rakyat”. Send one to Malaysians for Beng Hock, display the other on your office/ centre.

3) Attend the upcoming “Justice for Beng Hock, Truth for Rakyat” mammoth gathering in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysians for Beng Hock will announce the details of the event at a later date.

While demanding justice and truth for Beng Hock, we will also appeal to the government to enact a Human Rights Act in order to safeguard the basic human rights of all Malaysian citizens, rectifying institutional infringement of human rights and preventing incidences such as Beng Hock’s mentally- tortuous marathon questioning session and witnesses being denied legal assistance during questioning from happening again.

Please contact our coordinators Ng Yap Hwa (012-2658448) or Chong Kok Siong (012-2138610) if you are interested to assist our petition campaign and send banners to us. You can also send an email to msians4benghock@gmail.com or visit our blog at http://malaysiansforbenghock.wordpress.com for more information.

Chong Kok Siong

Coordinator

Malaysians for Beng Hock

 Malaysiakini:"Beng Hock support group seeks 100,000 signatures"