Zaman still living life to the fullest
Talk was rife that the case on the missing politician had an insidious political motive that even the then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was on high alert.
“After the first few days, we began to get more stories. Mazlan believed in nujum ( f o rtunetellers) and pawang (traditional healers). Some claimed he even went as far as Negri Sembilan, Melaka and Indonesia to consult them.
“Around the time he went missing, the Umno elections were looming. And Mazlan was vying for a post of division chief.
“We started to dig and found out that he had consulted a woman, Mona.
“So we tracked Mona, her husband and her assistant to a house in Raub, Pahang. It was there that we found Mazlan’s skull.”
Zaman said when police officers presented Mazlan’s skull to the then Pahang menteri besar Tun Dr Mohd Khalil Yaakob, he was shocked.
It was later discovered that Mazlan’s body was cut into 18 parts and buried 1.8m deep in a cemented grave in the same area.
Zaman said Dr Mahathir called him to check if the murder was free from political motives. “I said ‘No, this was all because of Mazlan’s beliefs’.”
Zaman said Mona kept mum during the interrogation and only broke down when pressed about the politician’s watch, which the police had traced to a man she was close to.
“I asked her ‘How could you give the watch of a person you had killed to a man you regarded as your brother?’ She then cried and told us where the rest of Mazlan’s body parts were.”
Zaman said all the while his long-time personal assistant Zainab also tried to dissuade him from investigating the case personally.
“My driver fell ill when they were searching the area. Some time later, I also fell sick. My legs were red and swollen, and I started having high fevers and I would shiver even under the blanket.
“My wife and Zainab were convinced that I was a victim of black magic, but a while later, we discovered it was cellulitis (which I contracted) while I was in Mongolia for an Interpol (International Criminal Police Organisation) conference with Tun Hanif.”
Zaman was Prisons Department director-general from 1994 to 1997 when Mona was locked up in Kajang prison.
He said rumours of Mona’s powers did not stop as the public claimed to have seen her dancing in nightclubs.
In 2001, four years after Zaman retired, Mona, her husband and their assistant, Juraimi, were hanged for Mazlan’s murder. The trio were also implicated in a number of other murders but that remains unsolved.
THE BRIEFCASE FALLS
While Zaman admits to having a pleasant relationship with the late politician Karpal Singh, one particular occasion where they crossed swords has gone down in history.
The “duel” emblematic of the fiery state assembly sessions in Penang in the 1980s has been immortalised in a Lat cartoon.
It was 1981 and Karpal, who was under suspension as Bukit Gelugor assemblyman, had walked into the Penang State Assembly and refused to budge. The sergeant at arms had already tried to show him the door and the speaker had called the police. But the Tiger of Jelutong kept roaring.
“This is a state assembly and you have no place here. Touch me and I will sue.”
As there are different versions to this, Zaman felt the need to clear the air.
“There was a hooha in the state assembly and they rang me up as I was Penang CPO (police chief) at the time. According to the law, the speaker must request for him to be removed in writing.”
“So he got three burly Sikh policemen to accompany him to the state assembly. When I arrived at the state assembly, it was a circus. People were throwing paper planes at each other. When someone shouted ‘CPO sir
mari!’ (The CPO has come), they stopped in their tracks.
“I asked Karpal nicely to leave, but he refused. I then signalled my reinforcements, and he relented but walked out without his briefcase.”
This is where the story differs, from the way things appeared and Zaman’s account.
Zaman claimed that he pulled a tablecloth and the briefcase fell, and he was just about to pick it up when Karpal jumped at the chance and ordered him to “pick it up!”.
Although Zaman had given his official account, many believed that Zaman had grabbed the briefcase and walked out, forcing Karpal, a practising lawyer, to follow him into the lobby, where the former threw the briefcase on a table hard. This caused it to fall.
That was when Karpal taunted: “Pick it up. Pick it now! Pick. It. Up!” which prompted Zaman to coyly retrieve it and put in on the table before walking away.
POLICE WORK AND HUMANITY
Zaman’s success throughout his career did not go unnoticed.
“I may have been reluctant before I became a cadet but from the moment I was chosen, I vowed I would do my best. If you are interested in police work, your instincts are naturally honed. When you work long and hard, you become an excellent officer.”
He said police work took sacrifice, adding that when his children were born, he would sleep separately from his wife so as not to disturb her when he left the house early.
“There were countless nights that I spent in stations and my office as well. When (former prime minister) Tun Abdul Razak Hussein died, I was on duty in Klang. I also used to sleep on a folding bed we confiscated in a raid on a gambling den when I was Selangor CID chief. So many days of leave were forfeited because I had a job to do.”
Zaman, who was one of the more educated police officers in the force during his time, also never stopped learning.
“I was sent to learn about how to deactivate explosives overseas. I came back and applied what I learned here. It was also during my time as Federal CID director that a push was made to start forensic investigations.”
Zaman’s no-nonsense approach to his professional work earned him the respect and admiration of his peers.
He recounted a time when he got a confession out of a cop, who was a Klang police chief, accused of smuggling mercury pallets.
“We interrogated him for a long time but he refused to talk. I took off his cuffs before his wife and children saw him. And I was rewarded with his admission the very same night.”
Zaman stressed that he was not prepared to condemn his fellow officers despite their reputation.
“They are better officers now because there is better training and such. But what we have to do is take care of the rank and file, make sure they have fair pay and reasonable working conditions near their families and so on. This will keep them away from corruption. The big guns who take bribes, however, should face the full force of the law.”
He suggested that the force conduct psychological testing for cadets and periodical follow-ups on personnel to help them cope with stress.
LIFE COMING FULL CIRCLE
Life has come full circle now. The politician Zaman was assigned to keep watch on in the 1960s when he was district police chief of George Town, is serving his second tenure as prime minister at the age of 93.
Zaman, who sits on the board of a couple of companies, also juggles his time between undergoing dialysis treatment three times a week and doting on his wife, Puan Sri Rosnah Ahmad, who is suffering from dementia.
The couple have 21 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
A shoulder injury had forced him to stop playing golf and exerting himself while gardening.
Nevertheless, Zaman’s steely dedication continues to shine in humanitarian work, helping a few charity organisations for HIV and AIDS care and awareness, as well as giving talks to students at universities.
At 81, Zaman still lives life to the fullest.
Page 1 pic: A Lat cartoon published in 1994 depicts wardens and prisoners welcoming Tan Sri Zaman Khan Rahim Khan following his appointment as Prisons director-general.