Is my impression of Malaysian Police correct?

I wrote the article below about 6 months ago. Since then quite a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. The biggest wave was the retirement of Dr M and the taking over of the PM post by Abdullah. And a few months later Abdullah won the General Election by a landslide. He announced the formation of a Police Commission (or did he announced it before the GE?). I am not sure the terms of reference for the Commission, but its a high powered Commission, they even included in it a former IGP, a former Chief Justice (I stand corrected) and another former Chief Justice (again I stand corrected) who had been elected as Member of a State Legislature representing a Political Party not from the same party as those ruling in the Federal Capital. That is something big there!. Anyway at the time of writing, I think the Commission had finished its work, and I do not know whom they presented their report to but I understand that the Commission is now tasked with implementing their recommendations. That is the trouble in this country, one is never sure as what is happening in the Government circle, who reports to whom and which body over rides which. Quite a confusing State for a person like me who have passed the age of understanding of the modern world, and the way the Malaysian Government operates.

And the post of IGP has also changed hand and we are told that this new guy is a straight forward guy, no nonsense and non corruptible (Aren't they all?). Again that is arguable, if we have lived in such a corrupt world these couple of years (I cannot prove it, who can anyway?) you can hardly tell whether a person is corrupt or not, the system is a immune to the situation and you cannot tell what is right and what is wrong anymore. Someone from outside has got to audit the situation here to see whether we are corrupted or not, but again to bring in someone from the outside will be an insult to our present elected Government who got there by the old and well known ways (Election?). Very confusing. National pride calls for a non interference from the outside.

To add, there was recently a case of a Malaysian Lawyer seeking political asylum in UK. Malaysian seeking political asylum in UK? That is news. That irked the Police as the Lawyer's reason for seeking the asylum was because he is now scared of the Police in Malaysia. He claimed that the Police are after him because he had been defending cases where accusations have been thrown to the Police for infringing on Human Rights. And I do not know of what Human Rights mean anyway, but personally I do not trust our Police, maybe a bit. Somehow I see them not defending the people but more of a threat to the people sometimes when they try too hard to solve crimes. Yes, they do solve crime, and very fast at that as well - they are efficient but they are also trigger happy. Maybe the American Police are more trigger happy than ours. I see a lot of that on TV. True? I am not sure. Anyway this Lawyer is now in UK and every official mean in Malaysia is trying to deny that he is seeking political asylum over there in UK, until recently the Lawyer's lawyer came out with the press statement stating that it is true that the Lawyer is seeking political asylum in UK. And that Lawyer is hiding somewhere in UK, probably scared that the Malaysian Police may find him and do him in. And of course the current IGP is furious that the local Police name had been smeared black by this Lawyer who is seeking that political asylum. Quite a drama really. Now the IGP is challenging that Lawyer to come back and tell everything, to clear the Police name. I think if ever that Lawyer comes back, he is a very very very stupid Lawyer.

I am not in the position to go deeper into this drama, but I suppose both sides are right. Some of you reading this might have encountered the Malaysia Police in one way or another, dealing with crime, petty or not and most of you have formed opinion. Leave it at that.

For me, I am waiting for the Police Commission to reveal publically their findings in a form of a report which may be purchased from the Government Printers. (Have they yet come out with such report? I mean that we can buy and read? I do not know. Or can we the public buy such report? I also do not know. In those days you can buy such report at the Government Printers). In Malaysia everything is so secret that you do not know what is there going even around you because of there is the Official Secret Act or something. There are so many Acts in Malaysia that some of us get lost what these Acts are and how they affect us normal citizens. We are truly Malaysian, we can even get lost in our own system. Of course someone can accuse me of being ignorant, living under a coconut shell (frog in the well) or something like that but to know everything you need to have such a long and sharp memory. I suppose now someone has got to untangle the system for people like me, a normal citizen, to understand what all these Acts are about. And we have this habit in Malaysia that if ever we want to do something or even be caught in a tight situation, someone will always quote you some a Clause from some Act somewhere, in a sort of threatening tone. Worse still if you get involved with the Police, they are very quick to quote you some Clause from some Crime Act which they have already memorised by heart. And of course to get out of that situation you have to have some very good answers or some very good Lawyers. Back to catch 22 situation. Back to chasing your tail, the Police will always win. And you pay, either in Court or................

But whatever the impression that I have about our police force, I must admit that they are good. Why not, they have one of the biggest network of police spies available, almost whatever you do in this country is known to our police. In reality I always ask this question, "Is Malaysia a Police State?". I have no answer.

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There is a lot of talk about Police corruption. It may be true in certain ways, but it may not also be true; they are all rumours, not many have been brought to Court to face corruption charges. Why? Nobody dares to report on Police corruption activities. Imagine if you report and try to get evidence. You will be facing a stone wall not only from the Police but from all parties concerned. But a few days ago I read about a Police Sup being brought to Court in Kemaman. Why? He received a free a/cond set from a Contractor. Such trifle. What about those who receive more than that?. Imagine that a former IGP is now heading the biggest gambling operations in the country. And many of his colleagues are heading more gambling Co. in Malaysia today. I read some where that a few of such high ranking, ex-Deputy IGP to name one.

Anyway, talking about corruption in the Police, I have not personally given money, but on one or two occasions I have been tempted to, but I always asked for written summon so that I need not pay these Policemen. The Policeman may seem disappointed but I stood my ground. Hearsay, I have heard of many cases where these Policeman collect "pocket money" from people, especially those when they stop motorcycles, worse still if the motorcyclists are illegal immigrants, the Policemen will have a field day. But again I was told that Policemen ask for money from Indon maids even though they are legal by threatening them to be deported. Of course these Indon maids are scared, especially in most occasions they do not bring along their Indon Passport when they go about in town or in their housing estates where they work. But again the Policemen's victim can be you or anyone who happens to be minor traffic offenders like running against the traffic red light. A friend told me that he was asked for some money from Policemen when he accidentally ran against a traffic red light while searching for a friend's house in an housing estate where he was not familiar with. He was stopped by some Policeman lurking nearby and told him of his offence and how difficult it would be if he gets summoned and having to go to Court. .And the Policemen were very clever as well. My friend wanted to give him money so he reached for his wallet. He Policeman said. "Don't do that, just slide the money above the rim of the car window". My friend just did that and he got waved off by the Policemen. So off my friend went. See how subtle the Policemen were?.

But again without Policeman around, life can be quite difficult. You get mugged, robbed, killed, rape, etc etc. So you still need them. You sill go to Police Stations to report crimes committed. You have to give Police statements. And you still call them "Dato" even though they have not "bought" or been awarded a Datoship. I know among themselves they call each other "CikGu".

And the current crime wave in KL is frightening. In my housing estate alone lately a small girl got her gold necklace snatched while playing in the children's playground near her house, a neighbour got his 4W car broken into at night and lost his golf set and golf shoes (which he kept in the 4W, my daughter got her car window smashed in broad daylight and her make-up bag taken (I think the thief thought that it was her purse), my immediate neighbour got his car ransacked even though he parked it under his house porch during the night (the thief climbed over his gate - they came by motorbikes with lights switched off) and on so many occasions you see people on motorbikes going in and out of the roads to our place (unknown people probably spying), and during the last Hari Raya holidays we have to employ security guards.

My worse experience with the Police was during their operations to collect fines for traffic offences last year. I checked with the Police in Kuantan for my fines and I was given the list of fines I had to pay. So I paid up, quite a tidy sum it was. Then a few days later on my way to KL I was stopped at the Genting Sempah tunnel entrance, the Policeman told me that I had not paid my traffic fines. I asked him "What fines?". I was shown a list. I still owed them about RM 3000.00, which was not shown by the computer in Kuantan. They said that the list comes from their computer in Bukit Aman. I was annoyed and I knew that Police records are not consistent in their computers, different places may have different records. They took away my IC and my car annual road tax plate (at that time the road tax plate was still not permanently stuck on to the front screen). I was told to go to the Police base. And he never indicated to me where the base was. So I went to Bandar Go Thong, the nearest Police Station. There they said that they did not know anything about the case. But luckily the young sweet police lady there was very helpful so I was calm beyond measure. Anyway, I was asked to go down to Genting Sempah again, where the sweet young police lady had already communicated with. There the former Policeman showed me where to go. The place was just a bout 100 meters away, but quite well concealed if you are not so observant as I was; I was angry then so had no correct orientation. After some argument with the Police there, I got my ticket, my IC and my road tax plate back. I quickly drove off to KL, and later in Kuantan I paid my fines. What can I say about the Police keeping records on computers. They need to send those needed for record keeping for some computer training

I have this Police Officer who lives near my house who drives a BMW, a car I can only dream of even though I have been working as a highly paid salaried Executive in some of the most rich companies. How he manages to rive a BMW? I do not know. Probably borrowed (temporarily or permanently)

Its timely that the Malaysian Govt. appoint a Royal Commission on the Police. What ever accusation thrown to the Police can at least be proven or dispelled, if he Royal Commission can be true to its objectives,. But like most things in Malaysia today, politic plays a big part in the results, the Royal Commission is no exception. And I also read somewhere that the Police now have asked the Royal Commission to increase the man strength of the Police, because they say that the Police work is now overloaded. But again some time back in Parliament a Minister answered a question on Police man-strength which indicated that the Police is under strength. But an Opposition politician a few days later countered that the answer was wrong, the Police is not under strength, in fact it is just like any other Police force in the world in terms of Police/public ratio. What the good Minister did not know that at that time the decimal place in the report to him for his statement was in the wrong place, it should have been one digit on the left of the last digit.

Imagine Malaysia today without he Police. It is full of crime at it is with the Police being here, and without them it will be absolute anarchy. But who commits these crime? Policemen have been caught committing crimes in the past, so what about today?

To think about the Police being the guardian of the ruling political party and not of the public in general. Wrong? I do not know, it depends in your logical thinking. They say that by guarding the power that be, I mean the ruling politicians, they are guarding the interest of the public. Somehow I see illogic in this logic, but who do I tell about this? Tell a Police man? You will be in trouble. They will shot chemically treated water jet at you. Tell a ruling politician, they will just laugh at you. Tell an opposition politician, they will think you are one of them. So you tell nobody and just suffer in silence. You can write to Aliran or to malaysiakni, but how many really care about them.

Once a radio DJ asked questions on cases of Police corruption, and he got called to a Police Station and grilled. After that he disappeared from the air.

I have appended below an interesting comment from a friend about the Police. What he says makes sense to me. Just read it and think about it.
At 07:07 AM 1/1/04, you wrote:

I truly support the PM's motion.

I think the Police's work scope have become far too big to be effective! Imagine at one time, the police having more personnel than the strength of the Army, Navy and Air Force combined together!. While a soldier (Army, Navy and Air Force) can only serve until maximum period of 21 years ( they don't want old soldiers), a normal policeman can serve until he reaches a retirement age of 56!

The Malaysian Police originally worked within the framework of 'internal security' meaning anything related to the security inside the nation, they are in charge. But as time goes by, the police evolves with many types of crimes like IT, drugs, illegal immigrants, smuggling, jungle combat, rioting, white collar, ISA, not to mention the increasing traffic violations etc all these work loads have been acquired by the police without much specialization being reinforced and therefore 'thinning themselves! Some of their works overlap with those of the Customs, Immigration, JPJ, Army, Navy, ACA and even the Public Prosecutor. (some Police men become prosecutors in court) etc. A few years ago police used to ascertain birth as well as death of the people. Maybe they still do that in the out post rural areas. To make it worse some politicians use the police as their political tools by making police report for their political mileage at the expense of other pertinent police works.

I remember in 1970s when we were at war with the communist terrorists, I used to fly both the army and police troops into the jungle for combat with the CT. And each time I had to ferry the police troops, I had butterfly in my stomach because the police field force lacked professionalism and were 'slow' . (No malice to ex police and current police though). While the army soldiers got to eat compo ration (canned ration), the police got to eat fresh rations. A platoon of army soldiers took 30 seconds to get out from the helicopter the police field force would take three minutes, thereby jeopardizing the helicopter from enemy shots. Amongst the police personnel, given the choice, few wanted to join to the police field force because they must work in the jungle. Most of them would prefer to join the elite special branch where life is more comfortable, working in urban areas and you get to wear civilian clothes for working. Moreover this is the branch where an officer get to become IGP.

So what can the Royal Commission do to get the police back in action? Streamline and rationalize their roles. I think the police should stick to 'public crime' per se i.e. rioting, cheating, vandalism, frauds, thefts, vice, drugs, robbery, kidnapping, murder, and leave the other enforcement works to the respective departments where the laws prevail, viz immigration to Immigration Department, those related to traffic and motor vehicles to JPJ, polluters to the Environmental Department, the sea infiltrators and pirates to the Navy or Coast Guard, air intrusion to the Air Force, jungle combat to the Army, court prosecution to Public Prosecutors, jungle rescue to Bomba and Penyelamat, smuggling to the Customs, corruption, breach of trust and other white-collar crime to the ACA and interpol, intelligence (Special Branch) and ISA to a new department like FBI which we can call it MBI. I believe with this in place our police will be more focused on their jobs and hence become more effective. Those 'extra' policemen after the rationalization exercise can be absorbed into the other government departments which need to enhance their enforcement capabilities like the IRB, Immigration, ACA, JPJ and Environment Department. So there is no question of any of them being retrenched. In fact with the training they have received they would be an asset to these departments. Like soldiers, normal policemen should also serve maximum period of 21 years. You can't catch thieves when you are old! Lastly, the pay should also be premium to attract youngster to join and also to prevent corruption.

Any comment?

amm

Now what do you think of his comments. I do not expect an answer from anyone. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.

To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my