10/22/2009
The fallacious truth of authority
The renowned Thai pathologist, Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, is retained by the Selangor State Govt as an expert witness to the suspicious death of Teoh Beng Hock. The official version, after official autopsy reports, suggested that the likely cause of death is suicide. Dr Pornthip's conclusion is that there is an 80% chance that it is homicide. She found many irregularities including strangulation marks, head hit by a blunt object and anal penetration!
Her findings were objected by Govt lawyers on grounds that she did not conduct the autopsy. So the people who conducted the autopsy must be telling the truth. This is the fallacious logic of authority. I was there, I saw it, I touched it, so I know what it is and I am telling the truth. The real truth lies in the facts and evidence.
The controversial findings would not have been possible if providence was not in Teoh's favour. It so happened that the State Govt is controlled by the opposition PKR. And now we are hearing a different truth. Darkness cannot be covered forever and light must come through in this case.
The dark ages of Malaysian politics must come to an end.
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8 comments:
In Singapore, if you are a political underdog, you sure as hell won't disappear in the middle of the night.Politics is not a game for the faint hearted so what's a law suit now and then. But murder? Now that's a game only inhuman scoundrels play.
> The dark ages of Malaysian politics must come to an end. <
It will eventually, and it'll be ugly and brutal... but in the meantime corruption is part of the system.
> she did not conduct the autopsy. So the people who conducted the autopsy must be telling the truth <
People who work in govt are not incentivised toward transparency, accountability or telling the truth. In fact, it makes perfect sense for govt employees to willfully tell lies simply to protect the structure of the govt.
In the private sector however, stakeholders are inentivised to accountability, transparency and telling the truth because they could lose money, wealth and reputation when they are finally caught out. That is not to say that people in the private sector are "angels", but the system of personal responsibility coupled with a personal cost tends to moderate behaviour.
Forget about trying to get "honesty" in govt. It's impossible.
Will the dark ages of Singapore politics come to an end one day too?
The govt is the territorial monopoly agency of "legal" FORCE. Everything the govt does is does so by force — you have to obey their laws, laws which compel you to behave not in your own interests necessarily (you have no choice) but in keeping with the letter and spirit of the govt's laws.
Therefore the absolute power of the govt MUST BE limited and constrained to particular contexts otherwise the govt becomes a territorially monopolistic TYRANT with absolute power.
Is is possible to have limited govt?
Is Limited Government An Oxymoron?
IMO, yes. Limited govt is possible for awhile, but over the long term it tends to grow bigger and more powerful — extending the contexts of is power beyond the primary function of govt — to protect the people.
China and India are prospering because they are REDUCING the amount of govt intervention and influence. Therefore overtime, if the people are to prevail govt should get SMALLER. I don't hold much hope for China and India over the long term. Sure they will prevail as they have the free market edge over most of the so-called "free world" (big joke!), however as Chinese and Indians become richer, they will pay more taxes to feed the growth of the state and eventually they will end up like the rest of the so-called "free world".
the best part about this case is that the authority is telling pornthip that they were the one who conducted the autopsy and their finding is the truth.
after darkness morning must come.
We are entering the dark ages ourselves, so don't worry about Malaysia.
We are not entering the dark ages ourselves, we a already inside the dark ages for the last five years, at least.
i am not too sure. what i am sure is that we are entering an age of see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing and do nothing.
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