Can T The Rm37m Payout To Pastor Koh S Family Be Deducted From The Police S Coffers Instead Of Taxpayers

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AS the Kuala Lumpur High Court reached an unprecedented if not daring verdict to award missing Pastor Raymond Koh’s family RM37 mil over state involvement in his abduction, tongues are wagging among wage earner Malaysians why a big chunk of their taxes will again be utilised to fund negligence of the authorities.
For the uninitiated, Judge Datuk Su Tiang Joo has yesterday (Nov 5) ordered the government to pay RM10,000 per day to Koh via a trust account until the pastor is found.
The payments will be counted from 3,187 days ago – on Feb 13, 2017 – when Koh was abducted in what has been heard in the trial as “broad daylight kidnapping by five masked men in black military outfits while he was driving along Jalan SS4B/10 in Petaling Jaya”.

Koh’s wife, Susanna Liew, has expressed gratitude for the KL High Court for its verdict, hailing it as vindicating the struggles of those who have been silenced and wronged by abuse of power.
But even as the verdict is hailed as “the best judgement of the year” or “that sum cannot match the suffering and pain borne by Koh family”, the government of the day will resort to “duit rakyat” to settle the bill just “because of one man’s folly (the person who ordered Koh’s abduction)”.

Whether it is “super brave for them (plaintiff) to name the PDRM (Royal Malaysia Police) Special Branch as the culprit” or otherwise, there are nevertheless hurdles prior to the KL High Court verdict coming to fruition for the government will certainly bring the case to the Court of Appeal followed by the Federal Court.

Eventually, there is every likelihood that the gargantuan sum “will either be overturned or the compensation greatly reduced by the Federal Court”.

Even as there is no confirmation yet of the actual payout sum pending the appellant and Federal Courts’ decisions, one cheeky commenter reckoned that the next battle for the Koh’s family is that of “friends, relatives, acquaintances, lawyers, assistants who would like their shares”.

On the bright side, however, oner commenter hoped that the KL High Court’s landmark judgment “will push the authorities to come clean in their investigations” with an eventual favourable outcome for the case involving Ipoh kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi.
For the record, Indira has sued the police, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the government RM100 mil in damages for allegedly failing to enforce a court order to return her daughter, Prasana Diksa.

The suit filed in 2020 claimed the authorities committed the tort of nonfeasance in public office by disregarding a Federal Court mandamus order to apprehend her ex-husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah @ K. Patmanathan and return the child.
The KL High Court dismissed the suit in June 2024 but Indira has appealed the decision.





















Then while no two court cases are alike given they each has their own merits, dissatisfaction is sure to abound when comparisons are made.
For example, why the late Teoh Beng Hock’s family was only offered a meagre compensation of RM600,000 given he died tragically while in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) custody in Shah Alam 16 years ago. – Nov 6, 2025

- focus malaysia

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