Gone too Soon: An eulogy for Mutalib MD

This is for my friend Mutalib MD who passed away so suddenly on 29th of June 2013.

I got to know Mutalib and his family only in the last few years. Even my 2 kids were friends of Mutalib. I share the loss of this unsung hero, he suffered a lot while exposing the issuance of forged Malaysian identity cards (I/Cs) to illegal immigrants from the Philippines, Indonesia and the Indian subcontinent.

For those who are in the dark about him: controversial political writer, Mutalib was in fact the first to expose illegal immigrants voting in the Sabah elections using forged identity cards (I/C palsu).

Although he was a Peninsular Malaysian born in Kedah, Abdul Mutalib Mohd Daud, or more popularly known as Mutalib MD was a true Sabahan who fought for justice for Sabahans and pursued Sabah’s Mother of All Problems – the illegal I/C

I dare say here that it’s because of Mutalib’s years of painstaking efforts Sabah got its first Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah.

But I’m also pondering how his sudden demise has raised some strange questions since he was the key witness for the ongoing RCI. A ‘conspiracy theory’ – RCI on illegal immigrants has just lost a credible witness just days before he is about to appear in the witness box. Mutalib’s death has also sparked rumors among those in the know and even on Facebook it was mentioned that he might have been a victim of an assassination plot.

This is no speculation; Mutalib himself had raised the question many times with me in the past when we were discussing the sudden death of Private Investigator Bala who was involved in the Altantuya case.

Mutalib wondered if the “government” could be infecting the “government critics” with illnesses …

Mutalib even told me, ‘I don’t want to make any reckless accusations,’ but Mutalib said he was concerned by something he finds ‘very, very, very strange.’ ‘Would it be strange if Malaysia had developed a technology to induce heart failure or stroke, and for no one to know it?’ he asked me. He even told me poisons like aconite, bufalin, oleandrin, digoxin, that induce heart attacks can remain undetectable without specific scientific techniques.

As with many conspiracy theories, there are a few grains of truth that lend such stories plausibility.

But, there’s also some evidence that governments have used poison to target enemies of the state. In 2006, former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko became sick and died from being poisoned by a dose of radioactive polonium-210, and before his death accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of the assassination. Still, government denials of sinister, clandestine assassination plots are to be expected, and did little to discourage conspiracy theorists.

I suppose only time will be able to tell. For now, I bid a final farewell to my friend Mutalib, a true and fearless Sabahan who tried to right the wrongs, but did not live long enough to see through with what he had been fighting for all these years. A champion for Sabahans, an unsung hero, we will be missing him.

My deepest condolences to his family and may Allah bless his soul.

He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery