Five years on, Pastor Koh's family asks authorities to reveal the truth

PETALING JAYA: Five years after Pastor Raymond Koh was abducted in broad daylight by a group of masked men, his family is still tirelessly fighting to find out what happened to him and is urging the government to provide answers.

His wife, Susanna Liew, and her family have been actively campaigning to find him since he disappeared, but are still no closer to finding the answer, with Liew saying that the authorities have been less than cooperative.

Liew appeared in front of the audience at the Multi Purpose Hall of the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) on Sunday night (Feb 13) during a candlelight vigil for Koh, to talk about her husband and how their hopes for answers still live on half a decade after his disappearance.

“We will never forget him as a person. He was kind, loving, he was a good man with a passion for the poor, the needy and the marginalised.

“We don't tolerate the inaction of the authorities. It has been five long years. No news, no updates from the police.

“It has been absolute silence from them but the message is telling us very loudly that they are complicit. Where is he? What has happened to him? Is he dead or alive? Have they murdered him?

“It is already five years and I cannot deny that I do sometimes lose hope but I know that wherever he is, God is with him,” she said in her speech on Sunday.

Liew said that if Koh was still alive, their family would do everything to find him, saying that they even resorted to filing a lawsuit against the government in February 2020 after failing to obtain a satisfactory resolution to Koh’s abduction from the police force.

Liew had sued former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun over Koh’s alleged abduction by state actors.

“If he is alive, our family would do whatever and everything that we can to find. Why is it taking so long? Is it that there is no political will? Is it that they don't care? Is it that they think lives do not matter?

“We followed the law when we filed the lawsuit in February 2020. Are they following the law or the law of the jungle?” questioned Liew.

In April 2019, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) concluded that Koh and social activist Amri Che Mat were victims of enforced disappearance by the state, namely the Special Branch of the Police.

The government then formed a special task force to establish the two men’s whereabouts.

The task force was scheduled to publish a report with the findings of its investigations within six months but, in January 2020, the government said that the task force needed more time to complete the report.

They have yet to publish this report.

Koh was abducted by masked men on Jalan SS4B/10 in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, on Feb 13, 2017, and Amri disappeared on Nov 24, 2016, after leaving his home in Kangar, Perlis.