Playing Sherlock Holmes

Desiderata was blessed from his schooldays to have been taught by an English teacher who was also teaching us General Science. He combined these two fields so well that if there had been a School for Detection in Malaysia, I would have gladly enrolled. Maybe then so many of these "high-profile" cases of MURDER MOST FOUL might have taken a new twist, with Desi at the next turn. Am I blowing some academic horn here?

I think I Inherited some of Sherlock Holmes traits because I must have read every single book by SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE on that famed detective, maybe accounting for some 40 percent of my teenage years reading, followed by 20 percent of Hercule Poirot’s pursuits by AGATHA CHRISTIE.

“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” – from “The Beryl Coroner”


“**SIR Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated creation, Sherlock Holmes, is so vibrantly characterized that through the years many have believed him to be, or wanted him to be, a real person. By Doyle’s own admission, Holmes was in part based on a real person, his mentor Dr Joseph Bell, a doctor of forensic medicineunder whom Doyle studied in Edinburgh. Bell was a progressive surgeon and renowned for his sound deductive reasoning.
…….

“Despite the (continued) acclaim for his detective, Doyle decided that the time had come to kill him off and in ‘The Final Problem’ he did so in a thrilling clifftop conflict with his nemesis Professor Moriarty. The public outrage was long and loud. Sherlock Holmes simply had to return.**”


The above was extracted from the back-flap of The Complete SHERLOCK HOLMES published by Geddes & Grosset as Desi knows he can’t put it any better, like trying to paraphrase Max Ehrmann’s poems, so I attribute complete authority to the author’s ownership. We wouldn’t want to steal from Dolye, would we, for then he may send the Hound of Baskervilles after me, and the mere thought sends chills down my weak spines, if I have any left …(NB: I don’t getta any financial interest from promoting ‘is book.:) Just one grasp from Doyle’s cold hand in my nightmare when the hound came running in the Seremban Maze from the English moorland …to rescue Desi from certain death, and my EsteemedReaders wouldn’t have kNOwn one YLChong. Ah, second trumpetin’!!


So just playing amateur Sherlock today, I just ask the following questions to some interesting scenarios on record:

*! In NORIETTA SHAMSUDDIN’s case, it was clearly said in court that the accused had sex with the murder victim within close proximity of time of her death, as his semen was voluminously ledged within her vagina at the time of her death. Would that factor alone, regardless of everything else, not suffice a calling of the accused’s defence – to perhaps tell us what transpired, in the accused own words, in the few hours before her death, and his movements the few hours following? A horse was around, but nobody wanted to hear it from the horses’ mouth…

*!! In the latest case involving the murder of Chinese teenager XU JIAN HUANG, there was clear evidence involving the theft of a huge sum of money and there was controversy over who stole the money – the murder victim (who could not tell his story) or the two bodyguards, who were jointly charged with XU’s uncle-businessman, a former Datuk, KOH KIM TECH. There was clearly a motive for the crime on someone’s part, yet isn’t this sufficient to call for a defence so that the trio could shed some light on the “missing RM30,000”. Other clear facts established included that the victim was found dead with 23 injury marks in the businessman’s heavily guarded residence swimming pool.

However, there is a glimmer of hope yet, as was expressed soon after the Norietta’s verdict was delivered.

THE STAR 22 September 2005 page 4 reports:

A-G to file appeal letter

KUALA LUMPUR: Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail will appeal against the acquittal of stockbroking firm director Koh Kim Teck and his two bodyguards from a charge of murdering Chinese teenager Xu Jian Huang.
He signed the appeal letter the afternnon yesterday and has directed his officers to file it with the High Court :as soon as possible”.


DESIDERATA is no lawyer, but as private citizen JoePublic, he deeply feels that Justice has not been seen to be done in the caes cited, and many more reported but too numerous to list here ... in fact, Desi feels that high profile cases involving any Accused who have the means to pay get a better deal than the poor blighters who couldn’t afford any counsel. Is this what the Justice System in my dear Malaysia has degenerated into? But I should not be surprised,and I am INSPIRED by this Citizen's case (refer $$$$$$$) ... because I will tell you why later, A*A...after Desi disposes with some other cases, not

Murder Most Foul, but still stinking, cases involving these scenarios:

*! But a politician I know from public record was able to obtain RM1.2blllion bank facilities in 1997/98 to help take control of several listed companies. To my knowledge from reliable sources, this was the same politician who ran off for a hiatus soon after the Asian financial crisi hit the region, including Malaysia which led to the stock market crash, diluting values by some 70 percent – yet this same person was elected to lead the current generation of youth leaders, and potentially rise to become a national leader. What gives?

Playing Sherlock Holmes, it just reminds me of what a great philosopher said, paraphrasing here:

When you borrow small from the bank, you owe the bank
You get a lawyer’s letter after three months of defaulting on repayments.
When you borrow BIG -- Humongous is the word! Some mGf who studied Down Under often like to use this darn’d word, I prefer Herculean, but WTH! You please the majority! See my PR is damned Good, yes? – the bank owes you. If you don’t service the re-payments, just interest will do-lah, BUT if no interests are paid even from Day1, also-can-lah, because you have powerful connections.

Contrast with today’s news report:

Reporting on the Dewan Rakyat proceedings yesterday, The Star again, page 12, headlined:

Uncaring financial institutions slammed

BANKS and financial institutions are uncaring and profit-minded, according to MPs.
Datuk Abdul Rahim (BN- Kudat) said commercial banks with a huge amount of liquidity always persuade companies to take up loans but they would quickly opt for legal action if a financial crisis takes place.
“Restucturing proposal submitted by the companies to the banks are hardly entertained,” he said during the debate on the Banking and Financial Institutions (Amendment) Bill.
Mohd Said Yusof (BN- Jasin) concurred with him, relating his experience about a bank which offered to increase for him the amount of his overdraft facility when he acquired some shares in 1995.
“But when the share value dropped during the financial crisis in 1997, I was asked to pay my debt together with interest. They chased after me and threatened to take legal action.”



*!! I’m in a foul mood today. The MITI yesterday released a list of 377 MPs and past MPs who also recived Approved Permits besides those given to AP Kings and businessssmen.
I’m going to sue the Oppositon Members who got all those APs yet at the same time crying “foul” at their Barisan Nasional counterparts in serving their self-interests. Remember many MPs also objected when the Government tops prefaced raising the MPs allowances by 10percent and they all demanded “WHY?” because to their mind, “None of them asked for it!”


Oh, you Malaysians, your memories are so slow and short. I think I’ll start a Simple School of SherlockHolmics to get thee cracking. Join me in filing that class action suit to freeze all MPs’ accounts except tose who wrote a cheque for that “10 pecent” Xtra which they did NOT want?

Remember the journalist I commended – Kee Thuan Chye? You I.Cowws ne’er read the Sun’s weekender last Sat/Sun? Kee wrote back a cheque for RM100 for an increment he received after a fallout with the management at a previous workplace as a matter of principle and maintaining his dignity. Does any of the MPs -- BN or Opposition -- have the dignity and honour of this gentleman of a journalist named Kee TC?

If you have not read this article, especially those planning Mass Comm studies,
“You are beyond Desi’s redemption.” I’m closing Desi’s Place. Ugut-nya lagi! I hear, but Desi is SerriiiooouuussssS this time, unless you get us a GOoD lawyer and you guys (which include gals within them, in cae I hear some feminists cry Blue Murder on Desi!) pay for that loyar tak buluk!

I half rest my case.

Hear what the defence has to say.

I may have a re-butter tomorrow.

Yang arif EsteemedReaders, I rest my case MEANtime. Take my word for it, I mean every word I said/writ.

$$$$$$$And exercising his right under Article 8(1) of the Federal Constitution,lawyer Rabindran Devadason filed a suit recently seeking a declaration that "he is entitled to the 500 APs he had applied for from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) on July 22 this year".

"I am equal before the law and I am entitled to equal protection before the law. There is nothing in the laws of the country to prevent me from diversifying my interests."

It's also the first time a suit has been filed against the government by an individual who claims he was unfairly denied Approved Permits (APs) to import cars.
According to his affidavit in this test case, he claimed he had received a reply to his AP application from Miti on Aug 8, "laying down all sorts of onerous conditions" and making it almost impossible to comply".
In his affidavit, Rabindran also cited reports by New Straits Times dated July 19 and 28, which listed the names of those who had received APs.$$$$$$$

A*A-- But my friends, be reminded
It was way back on a May Day in ‘88
When the court sat on a holy day
A panel of junior judges sacked their chief

Salleh Abas Lord President was dismissed in a jiffy
But then DPM Anwar Ibrahim held his tongue
A decade later with one fell swoop
Anwar became a lauded victim in the vicious loop

Refomrasi Anwar started, his loyalists proclaim
They forgot Salleh and his Brave Ones
Who stood their ground for justice
They indeed were the unheralded Originals

Reformation is not only taking to the streets
It’s changing of the mindset
What became of the Judiciary following Salleh?
It was downhill all the way…

It led the country’s leading judicious mind
The late Tun Suffian Hashim to lament in 2000:
“I wouldn’t like to be tried by today’s judges,
Especially if I am innocent.”*

*Quoted from a speech on March 10, 2000 that the former Lord President delivered at a Bar commemoration for the late Justice Tan Sri Wan Sulaiman. *A*

One footnote I’d add here is that many Malaysians have short memories. How many of us can still recall that not many citizens rose up to raise any protest when “injustice” befell the former Lord President and five fellow judges? There is a saying, “What goes around, comes around”, which many of the country’s politicians must take heed of, if they do have a conscience.