SECURITY ISSUE: Wong (seated left) with Shafie beside him in the meeting to discuss the security of Sibu. Looking on are the police officers.
SIBU: Police yesterday revealed that the gruesome killing of three members of a family in Sungei Empawah last Thursday was not an armed robbery case, but one sparked from a quarrel between the orchard owner and his workers.
Police chief ACP Shafie Ismail revealed this when SUPP Sibu leaders, led by branch chairman Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh, visited the police headquarters to get the latest update on the murder case which had rocked the state.
During the dialogue session, Shafie said the revelation had come from information gathered from the crime scene and interviews with villagers.
He confirmed that the three murderers were workers of slain farmer Tiong Tang Ming, adding that the three were illegal immigrants who had been tapping rubber for the 69-year-old plantation owner.
“From our information, Tiong hired more than 40 men to work in his rubber estate and fruit orchard.”
Although the police chief did not specifically mention the status of these workers, it is believed there were other illegal immigrants among them.
Shafie said before the murder the three had met the farmer in his house at 7pm to ask for their pay as they intended to return to Indonesia.
“Our investigation revealed that the farmer had sold the latex. We believe the farmer did not pay, and this led to a struggle and a fight.”
He said the farmer’s son Tiong King joined in and, in the struggle, the farmer threw a chair at the illegal immigrants.
Shafie said he believed the sequence of events sparked by the rejected pay request provoked the workers and they turned violent.
“The circumstantial facts proved that there was a struggle in the house, and that the farmer, who had basic kung fu skills, had fended off the attack.”
He said both of the farmer’s forearms were inflicted with multiple knife wounds, adding that police believed he had used them to fend the knife attack.
The police chief said this led to the attack of four in the family, including the farmer’s wife Peh Kim Eng, his son and daughter-in-law Teu Lee Mee.
Peh survived the attack because she played death after she was slashed on the neck.
Meanwhile, another police source said that when the three workers first met the farmer in his house, the atmosphere was not tense.
“The three were invited in and, as the Tiong family members were having dinner, the three joined in to eat with them.”
Police believed the three could have stayed in the house for up to half an hour before violence erupted.
Shafie said after the killing of the three in the family, the workers ransacked the house.
“We believed they fled with cash and jewelry. Before that, the farmer had struck lottery. We are now probing whether the winning cash has been taken.”
Among the SUPP leaders present yesterday were Sibu branch secretary Datuk Tiong Thai King, organising secretary Oliver Kuo, publicity chief Daniel Ngieng and vice chairman Vincent Goh.
Wong, who is also the Second Finance Minister and Minister of Local Government and Community Development, said he had been concerned with the violent crime in the village.
He said when it occurred, he was overseas. “Therefore, after my return, I immediately wanted to have a dialogue with the police on the security aspect of Sibu and on ways the people and the police could work together to maintain the peace of Sibu.”
He praised the police’s commitment in racing against time to solve the murder case. Shafie confirmed crime specialists from Kuching were backing up their probe.