PDRM: Cops or criminals
Is the BN government’s refusal to put the police force on a leash, a case of ‘you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’
The bad news includes detaining people behind bars and whacking the daylights out of them, leaving them dead literally. Then there is the insensitivity and indifference shown by the police when it comes to handling complaints concerning violence against women, be it rape or domestic violence.
Jeswan Kaur, Free Malaysia Today
There is a Malay proverb, “harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi” which can be taken to mean that a person who is entrusted with something often ends up betraying that trust. In today’s time, this saying best defines the Malaysian police force.
Reneging on their responsibility as protectors, the cops by virtue of their own misgivings will have to clean up their act to redeem public faith and trust that has slipped off.
Going by the many reports of police brutality, the latest reported by FMT on May 26, 2011, there is no doubt left that the people are having a tough time counting on the cops, for the cops seem to be making news, but for the wrong reasons.
The bad news includes detaining people behind bars and whacking the daylights out of them, leaving them dead literally. Then there is the insensitivity and indifference shown by the police when it comes to handling complaints concerning violence against women, be it rape or domestic violence.
On the issue of domestic violence, a young woman, Pakaim Subramaniam, died in February this year, just five months into her marriage. Her father, M Subramaniam, alleged that she was the victim of domestic violence due to the severe injuries she had sustained. He said the police failed to investigate the case, which then led him seek help from Suhakam, the country’s human rights commission.
Meanwhile, the latest cop brutality reported by FMT involved a 20-year-old student, S Ganesan, who claimed that he was beaten up and verbally abused by the police after he knocked into a policeman’s motorcycle at a roadblock in Rembau, Negri Sembilan, in the early hours of the morning.
“The policeman kept beating me and called me ‘keling’. They also shouted at me, saying I should just die so that they can close the case,” Ganesan was quoted by FMT as recalling.
The youngster was then warned not to report the matter before he was bundled into an ambulance and despatched to the Tunku Jaafar Hospital.
Now, what should one make of such news when the men in uniform go back on their duties and abuse the trust the people have in them?
To think that the former inspector-general of police, Rahim Noor, unfortunately set the precedent when he beat up former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, to the extent of punching the latter in the eye, earning Anwar the “blue” eye bruise that paradoxically went on to become the symbol of his party, Keadilan.
Police notoriety
With police notoriety fast becoming the norm than the exception, it is no longer acceptable that the government under Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak acts nonchalantly over the abuse the public suffers at the hands of the police.
Clearly, the need for a body to keep an eye on the cops and admonish them where need be has to be instituted. The federal government’s refusal to acknowledge the role of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) is best translated as the government’s could-not-care-less attitude about how the people suffer at the hands of the police. Are the police the new “law”?
Refusing to create a monitoring body to ensure the cops remain within the boundaries of their duty has only put the federal government in a bad light. Citing reasons why the IPCMC is not necessary gives the people the message that the government is not willing to undertake any measure to upset the police force. But why?
Has the country’s police force become a law unto itself, doing as it pleases, sending the public the message that it has immunity courtesy of the “powers that be”?
When cops who beat up detainees are let free by the court, it marks a sad day for the justice system in this country. And it is even more appalling that the government that keeps brainwashing the “people first” chant to the people finds it unnecessary to intervene.
In 2005, a 634-page report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Police Force, headed by a former judge, revealed that the police were brutal, inept and the most corrupt among the government departments. Between 1999 and 2003, there were 5,726 formal corruption complaints involving the police force and it was recommended that the police force be monitored by an independent watchdog.
Still, the BN government is adamant that there is no use for the IPCMC.
An Indian-based non-governmental organisation, Aastivaram Foundation, said between 2003 and 2007, there were 85 custodial deaths. This number excluded those who were shot dead.
“The commission is long overdue. Currently, the police themselves investigate cases of police abuse and I believe they tend to cover up such cases,” the foundation’s vice-president R Sanjeevan told FMT recently.
On June 18, 2008, a cop on duty at the Putra Heights (in Subang Jaya) police station raped a woman pillion rider after detaining her boyfriend at the police station for riding the motorbike without a licence. The 17-year-old girl gathered all her courage to take the perpetrator to court. And yes, this was not the first such case involving a policeman but something must be done soon to make sure it is never repeated.
If a policeman is unable to carry out his responsibilities with respect to the uniform he wears and to the people he is duty-bound to protect, then there is no reason left for his presence in the force.
