PDRM deserves better deal from BN-led government

Yes, there are pockets of men and women on the police payroll who have drifted along the call of duty and done wrong. But when you interface with the police or their families and gain their trusted confidence, it does not require an Einstein-brain to decipher that our men and women in blue are not much cared for by the government.

The government – under the BN patronage and leadership has no qualms to allocate overnight and out of the blue budget allocations to feed, clothe and arm a battalion of RELA recruits.

But the PDRM folks have ploughed through the half-a-decade with a mountain of obstacles and inconveniences and yet put duty above self. And they do not have the avenue of protest platforms to register their cruel work conditions and unrewarding duties-before-self.

Just take a look at how long it took us to ensure that police families could have a decent roof above their heads unlike the pigeon holed dwellings that was dished out for them for decades.

Take a look at how long it took the government to even provide comfortable, decent, swiveled, fabric chairs and workstations with modern-day computer technology and you get the drift of misplaced priorities.

Even then, many of the printers at the many balai are antiquated. Getting a cartridge of ink replaced can be a frustrating wait.

Today, despite so much emphasis and prioritization for the RELA forces, you find our PDRM men and women working fifteen to eighteen hours without weekends.

Talk to these duty disciplined men and women who are at His Majesty’s service in the interest of the rakyat and Negara, and you will learn that indeed it is no surprise why many of them suffer from heart related disorders and digestive ailments, let alone diabetes and other diseases and mental health states.

When it comes to claims and financial relief, the public sympathizers and the PDRM family members know too well how arduous and complicated such claims can be for disbursement – from a simple mobile phone expenditure to out-of-pocket expenses incurred when on duty chaperoning a VVIP.

We witness the BN government allocating billions of ringgit for all kinds of public expenditure and seeming national development programs. But when it comes to increasing our police force we have a funds issue.

If it is not a funds issue, the peddled excuse is that citizens are not interested in joining the PDRM. But when it comes to RELA recruiting exercise – wow, within months you have hundreds of thousands enlisted.

It is time that our police force are given top priority in terms of working conditions, working environment, benefits and remuneration. It is time that the PDRM men and women – especially the humble cop who fights sleep, braves rain and shine, and is deprived of reasonable family time, rest and recreation as he or she puts duty above self, enjoys a meaningful and sensibly rewarding life.

Do our politicians know how many cops are separated from their husbands or wives and children weeks on end and sometimes for years simply because of work and near impossibility of securing work transfers?

It is about time that we get honest. It is about time that we recognized that our uniformed men and women – whether they serve the police, air force or the army, are graded and rewarded commensurate with the cost of living with express priority.

Unless and until the government can come clean on this score of caring for our men and women in blue, we remain guilty of exploitation. That care must translate to cover mental state, medical state, physical state, financial state, social state, and of course living a meaningful life of duty to serve and the right to enjoy living.