A Merdeka introspective on a needless death – P. Gunasegaram

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ON the eve of Merdeka Day, August 31, I watched a rather disturbing video of an old security guard being viciously attacked physically and repeatedly, without any provocation, in front of a toddler.

It turns out the attacker was a fairly high-ranking member of Bersatu, a Malay-only party, set up just before the elections of 2018. The aged security guard, who was Indian, had at an Ipoh condominium apparently told the attacker that the swimming pool was closed and therefore his son could not use it.

For just following instructions from his employer, the security guard sustained serious injuries and was hospitalised for several months before he died of a lung infection. His family maintained that his injuries were the source of his death.

Authorities are investigating the death, now classifying the incident as murder instead of the earlier charge of causing grievous hurt after the assault last December. I hope they get him and punish him under the law for an unwarranted deadly attack on a defenceless man for merely doing his job.

But I wonder what it was that led this attacker to have so much hatred for this old security guard. Where did it emanate from? And did he have any thought at all for the welfare of this other person, a fellow citizen?

Did he think of him as a lesser person, as a person who was responsible for his own troubles? Did the attack take place for racial reasons? What did independence mean for the old man...and for the one who attacked him without mercy?


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