Nathaniel Tan: Lost and Found, Almost

THIS is what I hate. I go away for one weekend and a man loses five hours of his life. Almost ending up being a face on a milk carton. Almost.

The man in this photo is Nathaniel Tan. Twenty-seven years old, Harvard alumni, a member of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat, also their IT guy.

On Friday, the 13th (hmm ...) of July 2007, the police took him away. At a quarter to five in the afternoon. Of course his pals and workmates go into a dither. Why? He was taken away by three plainclothesmen who identified themselves as Special Branch. It isn't everyday one gets hauled away by Special Branch, so needless to say this is a special occassion, deserving special attention.

Here's where the story gets interesting. At Special Branch's HQ in Kuala Lumpur -- yes, the ironically named Bukit Aman (Hill of Peace), Nathaniel Tan's friends/associates/family people are told that the authorities do not have him in custody. Sorry, not at home.

Good grief, the people think. Our Nat isn't with the cops. Those people who took him away must be bogus fellows. KIDNAP!

The alarm goes up. After all, Nathaniel Tan is worth his weight in gold, at least to all the dear folks who love him.

A police report is lodged: Nathaniel Tan has been abducted by three unknown persons.

The family/friends/associates dash about some more. Lodging a report is not as easy as you think. First, you have to lodge it at the correct police station. Which in this case is the Dang Wangi police station. About half a mile away (metric, be damned) from The Hill through a snarl of traffic and hefty office blocks.

Fortunately, the police are quite kind and come to The Hill to take the report. They also give these folks at ride to the police station to lodge a second report. (Don't ask why a second report. Maybe they forget to do a carbon copy. Maybe they want to report in another language. Maybe ..) But then, the officer assigned to take the report is from a third police station, Kelana Jaya. Nathaniel Tan's folks are told to proceed to KJ to make the statement.

Exhausted yet? Wait, there's more.

The family/friends/associates dash about the next four hours trying to pin down who's in charge of what and where's which and why. Finally, between the hours of 10 and 10.30pm, after turning over almost every rock in the garden, they get a sure word from the cops. Nathaniel IS under arrest for an offence(s) under the Official Secrets Act.

Five blinkin' hours. Five. And running about all over KL and PJ. Man, it is as if Nathaniel Tan's arrest were an Official Secrets Act itself.

Malaysians are always complaining about being given the run-around by people in bureaucracy. Now we can see why they're complaining. Look, who has time to play hide-and-seek on a Friday night? And haven't we outgrown this kiddy game by now?

And with the Altantuya-Abdul Razak Baginda case still being heard, when so many Malaysians are joking about cops whisking people away and turning them into fireworks, surely there's a better way to execute an arrest than this. Think about it: who's the cop, who's the robber. Cops should be the ones who are able to walk tall, with their heads held high, looking you right in the eye, speaking the truth. And robbers -- well, we all know what robbers do.