Quick-draw cops, slow-action government — The Malaysian Insider

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Apr 28, 2010

(TMI) Aminulrasyid Amzah’s death won’t be the first time the people and politicians call for action against police for being “trigger-happy”. And it won’t be the last, if the government of the day doesn’t take action.

Way back in Aug 22, 1986, schoolboy Elmi Tahir was shot and killed on his birthday while out with his girlfriend, Suzlina Nordin. Then Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang called for a Police “ombudsman” to investigate due to “conflicting stories about the incident, as well as discrepancies in the official police version,” which he said “raised anew the need for an independent inquiry into all complaints about negligence, killing and crimes”.

“The police had said that Elmi was shot during a car chase, when, as his father Tahir Salam has now clarified, Elmi was shot at point blank range after he had stopped his car. Gunpowder traces on his head showed that he was shot at close range. Elmi was shot the above the right eyebrow, the bullet coming out at the back of his head,” said Lim, who was then Tanjong MP and Kampung Kolam assemblyman.

The ombudsman idea never took off.

Thirteen years later, 29-year-old Dr Tai Eng Teck was gunned down by police at the Bandar Tasek Selatan LRT station car park on Sept 29, 1999. Police constable Tony ak Beliang was subsequently charged for the offence and convicted, but was later acquitted upon appeal.

Earlier this month on April 10, two brothers R. Logeswaran, 34, and R. Sathitanathan, 27, were shot dead in Jalan Kamunting Gardens, Taiping. Police said one of them was high on the wanted list.

On Monday, Aminulrasyid became the latest statistic and politicians from both sides of the divide want action to be taken. The Royal Malaysian Police have transferred the four policemen involved in the incident to desk duties pending an investigation.

Still, there remains no police ombudsman and the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), proposed by a Royal Commission in 2005, was eventually replaced by a Special Complaints Commission tabled in 2007. This was also later changed to the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (Siap), and passed by parliament last year.

All said and done, this only takes care of the results after an incident has taken place.

What Malaysians are interested in now is how to prevent another Elmi Tahir, Dr Tai, Logeswaran, Sathianathan and, most recently, Aminulrasyid from happening with such frequency or at all.

While it’s possible some might have been guilty of one offence or another, the heavy firepower used suggests many things.

Among them is the lack of training, and the issuing of high-powered weapons to inexperienced policemen recall the idea of a “shoot-first-ask-questions-later” policy.