Articles, Opinions & Views: COMMENT - Durian Tunggal case and the legacy of Zahid's 'shoot first' rhetoric By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Fighting Seventh
The Fighting Rangers On War, Politics and Burning Issues
Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
COMMENT - Durian Tunggal case and the legacy of Zahid's 'shoot first' rhetoric By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, July 13, 2026
Malaysiakini : Whether people think of these men as criminals or victims is
irrelevant. What we have here and in many other cases involving the
police in alleged or confirmed extrajudicial killings is the state
security apparatus taking the law into their hands and, in the process,
attempting to cover it up.
In nearly all these cases, the police
claim that its officers were attacked or in fear of their lives, or the
victims possessed dangerous weapons.
Sifting through gruesometruth,deadlylies
Remember the death in custody
of A Kugan at the Taipan police station in Subang Jaya, Selangor? Most
people would be familiar with the gruesome post-mortem pictures of
Kugan, but to me what is even more sinister was the attempted cover-up.
If his family didnāt barge into the mortuary,
the truth or the inkling of it would most probably be cremated or
buried. The family could not even grieve in peace, with mourners being arrested during the funeral.
The lies or misconduct of the first pathologist (which only warranted a reprimand) seemed like an apathetic shrug from the state, as if the murder of Kugan did not even warrant a sophisticated cover-up.
And because of the propaganda for some, Kugan will always remain the āsuspected luxury car thiefā who died in custody.
Three
years ago, two siblings detailed the horror they experienced when they
were detained by the state security apparatus at the Selangor police
headquarters in Shah Alam.
You can read about it here
and, of course, the feeble attempts by the police higher-ups for the
brothers to make a āpolice reportā, which they said would be
investigated fairly and transparently.
The duelling narratives in the shootings at Rawang,
Selangor, a couple of years back, are something Malaysians are used to.
The family of the deceased had made serious allegations against the
police.
Prima facie, it would seem that the police were lying when it came to the alleged criminal history of V Janarthanan and his stay in this country.
Funeral of Rawang shooting victim G Thavaselvan, September 2019
What
did the Coronerās Court say about this shooting? From reportage -
āCoroner Rasyihah Ghazali said there was a criminal element in the case
and that there was an abuse of power by the authorities in the fatal
shooting of G Thavaselvan, 31, S Mahendran, 23, and Sri Lankan national J
Vijayaratnam, 40.
āLawyer M Visvanathan, who acted for the family of the deceased, confirmed the verdict in the inquest.ā
Weaponising racism, bigotry
These,
of course, are the numerous racial flashpoints in this country because
the majority of non-Malays view the state security apparatus as enablers
of hegemonic Malay political structures.
When Ahmad Zahid Hamidi served as the home minister when Umno was in power, he advised a shoot-to-kill policy because the Malay community is normally the victim of crimes:
āWhat
is the situation of robbery victims and murder victims during
shootings? Most of them are our Malays. Most of them are our race.
āI
think the best way is that we no longer compromise with them. There is
no need to give them any more warning. If (we) get the evidence, (we)
shoot first.ā
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was home minister in 2017
And
who could forget when the former police chief of Terengganu claimed
that Malays do not participate in gangs because of their culture and
religion?
What we have to understand is that any attempt at
oversight necessarily means confronting the racism and bigotry that
permeate these institutions.
Lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan, representing the families of the executed citizens in Durian Tunggal, said, āThis is murderā.
Gobind
Singh Deo said, āThe police do not reclassify cases, especially to
serious capital offences such as homicide, unless there is a solid
evidential basis to do so.ā
So the question is, what is taking so long? Maybe this has something to do with what a former BN secretary-general said about who is in the attorney-general hot seat:
āWhat
I said about the attorney-general (is) I am stating facts on the ground
- that (there is) fear (among) the Malays that probably, if the AG is
not a bumi or Malay, then there is a fear of bias.
A more dangerous Malaysia
This is about systemic dysfunction and the collusion between the political class and a different kind of criminal enterprise.
I will end this piece with this quote from Lawyers for Liberty when the Court of Appeal reaffirmed the acquittal of now-deceased corporal Jenain Subi:
āThe
courtsā support for trigger-happy police does not make Malaysia any
safer. In fact, it will make Malaysia a more dangerous place, because
any person who flees from the police is now liable to be shot, and if he
or she is wrongly killed, it is now open for the police to claim
mistake or accidental death.ā
To this day, nobody from the state
security apparatus has explained the machete which was found in the car
that Aminulrasyid Amzah had taken for a joyride, which resulted in his death.
