UNSPIN: Glaring mistakes in the Mystery Letter I

Commentator Alizul said:

The blogger who displayed the letter claimed to have obtained it from an unnamed friend. [For those who have not read the full text of the letter online, please go to the link here.]

Because the inquest has not revealed the letter, we don't know yet whether the letter posted online and the one that surfaced during the inquest are one and the same. But there are a few things in the letter posted by Perisik Rakyat that are worth commenting:

Who wrote the letter?

The signatories to the letter say a group of SPRM officers. Judging from the content of the letter, it seems to have been written by persons

(a) who have an axe to grind at the Deputy Director (DD) of SPRM; or
(b) who are pro-PKR (the letter mentioned "mencari kesalahan PKR yang memerintah negeri Selangor sekarang" - only PKR was mentioned whereas Selangor is governed by the PR coalition), or
(c) who actually have legitimate reasons/grievances.

Some commentators various blogs are pointing finger at RPK and even Azmin Ali. In any case, anybody can cook up stories if he/she has the ulterior motives and the desire. Remember those days of "surat layangs" during Tun Mahathir's time?!

I've pointed out in my comments in other blogs that, tellingly, the letter is unsigned. If there's no signature, can it be considered legally valid? If we recall the recent Perak government takeover case, we know that an unsigned letter is legally invalid before the court of law, right?

Also, it's not impossible for someone to obtain a blank SPRM letterhead if he/she has inside sources. And in this computer technology age, a computer savvy person can easily reproduce the blank letterhead, insignia and all.

Some commentators here and elsewhere said we should at this juncture treat the letter as a "surat layang." Maybe.

But a more pertinent question should be: Is the letter a fake? Is Gobind & DAP pulling another stunt to force the inquest to accept their theory that Teoh died due to reasons other than suicide?

The format of the letter does not seem right because:

(1) Normally in an official letter, only the first and last paragraphs are not numbered. But in this letter, the paragraphs 1 AND 2 are not numbered.

(2) The subject matter in an official letter normally do not end in full stop or period (noktah), but in this letter it ends in full stop.

Both (1) and (2) could be typos or unintended mistakes, but government personnel usually don't make such mistakes.

(3) As for the slogan at the end of the letter, as far as I know, the standard phrase is "BERKHIDMAT UNTUK NEGARA". But in this letter SPRM is included together with "YANG DICINTAI". Is there any difference between "Negara" and "SPRM"? Shouldn't "Negara" supercede "SPRM"? Maybe SPRM has its own slogan, I don't know.

Are there factual errors in the letter?

Maybe one. The letter alleged that the DD was once arrested by only 2 police personnel for being in close proximity (khalwat) with his subordinate. But are not such arrests normally conducted by religious department officers (in this case JAIS) accompanied by police personnel?

Then there are also spelling errors (e.g. macammana) and bad command of BM (e.g. untuk mendedahkan tentang).

So there are flaws in the letter. The question of whether it is a fake or whether the allegations contained therein are true or slanderous, is best left to the authorities to determine.