“We hope individuals of integrity like Sergeant Shamzaini will be protected, as they are a bastion of truth in today’s fast, morally decrepit world.”
The family of Pastor Raymond Koh, who was abducted eight years ago, has made a heartfelt plea to the government — protect Sergeant Shamzaini Daud, the Special Branch officer whose moral courage helped expose alleged police involvement in the enforced disappearances of both Pastor Koh and activist Amri Che Mat.
It was Shamzaini’s decision to come clean that gave the families the evidence they needed to show that their loved ones were not merely missing — they were taken.
During Amri’s trial, it emerged that Shamzaini had privately told Amri’s wife, Norhayati Ariffin, that police officers were behind her husband’s abduction — and that the same group was also responsible for Pastor Koh’s kidnapping a year later.
A Judgment that Confirms What Everyone Already Knew
Last week, the High Court ordered the government and police to pay over RM37 million to Koh’s family and RM3 million to Amri’s family — a historic ruling that officially acknowledged what both families have long believed: the police were responsible.
But even this rare judicial victory comes with a bitter aftertaste. No one has been suspended. No one has been charged. The same officers named in the Suhakam inquiry of 2019 — and now reaffirmed by the High Court — continue to wear their badges.
As Justice Su Tiang Joo remarked in his ruling, it is a “bitter irony” that taxpayers must now bear the financial burden for the misconduct of public servants.
“It offends the concept of fairness, reasonableness and justice,” the judge said, reminding the court that “there is no such thing
Vindication Without Consequence
For the Koh family, the verdict was both vindication and tragedy. It validated their suffering, but also made plain that truth alone is not enough to bring justice in this country.
They have once again called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry, and for a new, independent task force — separate from the Special Branch — to locate Saiful Bahari Abdul Aziz, the man identified as a key suspect in the abductions.
“It is baffling that neither the Cabinet nor the Attorney-General took any action despite their own commissioned report clearly stating that police officers were involved,” the family said.
Their words cut to the core of a national truth: in Malaysia, even when the truth is established, power rarely pays the price for it.
A Whistleblower Among Wolves
Against this backdrop, Sergeant Shamzaini’s position is perilous.
He remains, presumably, within the same institution that the court itself has now found responsible for kidnapping and disappearance. The family’s plea to protect him carries an unmistakable sense of fear — the fear that the same forces that silenced their loved ones might turn on him next.
And so we are left with a grim irony: the family of a man abducted by the police is now asking the police to protect the one honest officer who revealed the truth.
It is a paradox so absurd that it feels like something from a dark film — and perhaps that is why one cannot help but think of the classic 1973 move Serpico.
In Serpico, Al Pacino plays a young New York police officer who refuses to take bribes or join the corruption that everyone around him accepts as normal. His honesty isolates him. The more he tries to report the wrongdoing, the more his fellow officers turn against him.
Eventually, he becomes a marked man — betrayed by his own unit, set up during a raid, and shot in the face. He survives, but only barely, and leaves the force disillusioned and broken.
It was based on a true story — but the moral feels timeless. When institutions rot from within, those who stay clean are not celebrated; they are punished. And when we look at Malaysia today, where truth-tellers like Shamzaini stand alone against the system, Serpico no longer feels like an American story — it feels like ours.
Reflections in a Morally Decrepit World
As I think about Sergeant Shamzaini, and about all the people who still choose truth in a world that punishes it, I find myself wondering — is it even possible to protect good people in a morally decrepit world?
Or must good people simply accept that they will never find rest here — that their reward is not safety, but peace in leaving before their time is up?
When Caliph Ali was assassinated, his final words were said to be:
“By God, I have triumphed.”
When I first heard those words, I found them strange. How could a man declare victory at the very moment of his defeat?
But as I grow older, I think I understand.
When you try to live with integrity live in a world where lies thrive and truth is hunted down, to be struck down for staying true to yourself is the ultimate challenge.
When despite the odds against you, you succeed in leaving such a corrupt without being untainted by it, , in the deepest sense, it is indeed the form of ultimate victory, that only perhaps those who truly try to be good will understand and appreciate.
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