It seems that I am not the only person in the country who smelled something fishy when we first heard about the death of deputy public prosecutor Lim Ju Vynn who was attached to the Customs Appeal Tribunal, recently.
Judging by how social media and former MIC member Balwant Singh is reacting, it seems that there is a whole spread of Malaysians who feel that there is just something not right with the way that the late Lim Ju Vynn was found dead.
Personally, I thought it was odd that he decided to commit suicide at his workplace and that his feet was bound. I also find it strange that his body was only found two days after his death, although he died on Monday in an office belonging to the Minister of Finance. Was there nobody in the office that knew Lim had died although two working days had passed?
I am not an expert on the subject, but I doubt that it is common for someone to tie their feet before they hang themselves. ( note : the official reason for the death of the late Lim is said to be self-strangulation, which I am interpreting to mean that he hanged himself, because I really don’t know how else you can “self-strangulate” yourself). However, the fact that the Late Lim was found lying unconscious on the floor is also something I am finding difficult to comprehend. How do you end up lying unconscious on the floor, after you have hanged yourself ?
Even more so, I find the fact that he had decided to commit suicide in his workplace to be also something that is strange and odd.
If you ever find me committing suicide in my workplace ( which I doubt will ever happen, touch wood ), please investigate my workplace.
As far as I understand it, you have to be in a dark place to commit suicide, and you tend not to be in a dark place at work, because doing work tends to take your mind away from the darkness that you might be dealing with in your life.
It is when you are done with work and have a lot of free time in your hand, that the darkness that is about you will start to possess your mind and tempt you to do all sorts of horrible things to either yourself, or the world you live in.
If I ever commit suicide ( touch wood and throw salt again), the place I choose to do it is meaningful. If I don't blame anybody but myself for my death, I will do it in a public place or a third party venue, like in a hotel room or jump off the Penang bridge.
If I do it in my workplace, it means that I likely want my colleagues to feel guilty over my death.
Even if the late Lim’s death is rightfully attributed to suicide, I think the fact that he chose to do it in his workplace warrants his workplace to be investigated, if not for a crime, then for some other phenomenon, like workplace bullying or toxic work conditions.
Also, the fact that Lim Ju Vynn was just 45 years of age, makes one really suspicious as to the cause of his death?
Was he in the midst of a divorce? Has he been diagnosed with a terminal illness? Did he lose a lot of money in a bad investment?
All these questions need to be answered, to assure the public that there is no ulterior reason for his death.
If I was 45, no matter what the problem that I might have in my workplace, I am not going to kill myself over it, because the worse thing that can happen is that I might be fired or be jailed, which is not the worst thing in the world that can happen to you when you are just 45 years old, as the late Lim Ju Vynn was.
Even if I am accused of doing something criminal at my workplace, I don’t see why I would commit suicide, because if I am innocent, I will believe that justice will prevail in the end, and if I was guilty, I would probably resign myself to going to jail for a while, before coming out and enjoy the spoils of my crime.
I also cannot believe that the late Lim was persuaded by a sense of honour to do what he did, when he was just living in Malaysia.
Maybe in Japan or South Korea, if one was caught doing something wrong in his workplace, one might commit suicide to redeem one’s honour, but here in Malaysia, where 5 out 6 of our living prime ministers have been or are being being investigated by the authorities for one wrong doing or another, what shame is there to be on the wrong side of the law?
Most of all, something that Cuepacs had said recently is gnawing at my mind when I think about the reason that the late Lim might have decided to take his life in his workplace.
According to Cuepacs, some civil servants are forced to take bribes.
“The ones offering bribes are the root of the problem. For their own interests, they put pressure on others to take bribes, sometimes even forcing their hand to accept.
“Some have come to us saying they faced threats. If they refused (the bribe), they would receive bullets in the mail or their families would be harassed,” Abdul Rahman Nordin, secretary-general of Cuepacs, the umbrella body for civil service unions told FMT recently, to explain that some civil servants are being forced to be involved in wrongdoing under duress.
From what we understand from Abdul Rahman’s revelation, we can see that systemic corruption happens in such a way, that an entire section or department of a government can be mired in wrongdoing, simply because the main people who are involved in the wrongdoing, might have a tendency to pressure everybody who works in the department or the organisation who might be in the know of the wrongdoing, to partake in the spoils of their wrongdoing, in order to make sure that no one will spill the beans, and also to make sure that it is will be hard to take actions against the primary wrongdoers, because a great number of people might also have to be taken down, if the primary wrongdoers are taken down.
If that be the case, if you belong to an organisation or department that is systemically corrupt, and you wish to reform it, you might receive tremendous pressure from within your organisation or department to cease and desist.
To understand how an entire department or organisation might pressure a person who is trying to reform its systematic corruption, the 1973 movie Serpico might give you a good idea.
In the movie, which is based on a true story, NYPD Officer Frank Serpico will end up getting shot in his face after being betrayed by his fellow officers, because he was relentless in his attempts to expose the systemic corruption that was plaguing the New York Police Department.
Though the movie will end with Serpico being awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor for "conspicuous bravery in action", Serpico also had to resign from the force and move to Switzerland because of his initiative.
No one however, will be found guilty of corruption in the NYPD, despite the fact that the commission that was formed due to Serpico’s effort, would conclude that Serpico was right, and that that the NYPD is indeed deeply corrupt.
If the late Lim Ju Vynn was involved in any activity to expose the wrongdoing of his department or organisation or if he was about to be ensnared by an operation that might have exposed the wrongdoing in his department, theoretically, there is a plausiblility that he might have been sacrificed in order to safeguard the interest of the many.
To see if this is the case, the cases that the late Lim Ju Vynn was working on, and the question whether the Late Lim was subject to any investigation from within or without his organisation needs to be answered.
If this question is not answered, it is unlikely that the speculation behind the cause of his death will abate, which in turn will create the impression that under the reformasi government, corruption or other forms of wrongdoing might have become even more lethal and fatal, than in the corrupt government that the reformasi government had fought against and overthrown, because the preparators of wrongdoing today are now getting so emboldened, that other than corruption, they might be even willing perpetrate more serious crimes.
“Justice must not only be done, but seen to be done.”
The death of the late Lim Lim Ju Vynn warrants scrutiny, if for no other reason than because our government owes it to the public, to show that justice has been done in the case of Lim Ju Vynn and his sudden death.
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