Sorry state of Malaysia's Police

I think I speak for most Malaysians when I say that our local police force leaves a lot to be desired.

A heck of a lot.

Why, just thinking about their inefficiencies, corruption and outright lack of any moral values whatsoever is enough to make my blood boil. Dont get me wrong however, I am a not a person who has constant run-ins with our police (except for the odd speeding ticket or two). My encounters with the police have been at a bare minimum to say the least, but even those fleeting encounters are enough to convince me that our local police are nothing more than a bunch of pot-bellied, moustached, corrupt, power abusing and perverted morons!!

Here's a recent article in The Star which reminded me of an experience I had with the police a few years back.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/4/6/nation/10596137&sec=nation

Sad isnt it, but then again, it isnt the first time our police have been accused of acting more like thugs than law enforcing agents. Which reminds me of my experience.

It was a normal night just like any other. I was in a cyber cafe in ss15 together with a few friends of mine. Together, we were enjoying a few casual rounds of online gaming when suddenly, the front doors burst open and about a dozen Malay men stormed into the premise. These men werent in any uniforms, they didnt identify who they were, neither did they have the brains to show any identification whatsoever.

All they did was shout in loud abusive voices (in Bahasa Melayu of course, these idiots couldnt speak English even if their kampung's goats lives depended on it)

"Hoi, semua orang ni tunjuk IC!!"

Everyone looked around in confusion. We had no idea who in the world these ugly, fat men were supposed to be. For all we know, they could be some samsengs bent on robbing the cafe (they certainly looked and acted the part). Patrons who asked for some form of identification were scolded with a...

"Jangan tanya banyak-banyak, ah-eleh"

Disgusting isnt it.

What basically followed was, these police men (urk) rounded everyone up into one of their waiting trucks. Yup, they rounded everyone including the person working at the cyber cafe. Which means the cyber cafe was left unattended. Which means anyone could have just walked in and carted of all the pcs, furniture and money. WHICH MEANS these police are seriously lacking in something, something which us educated, civilized folks know as COMMON SENSE!

Ok, so where was I? Waiting trucks, alright.

So everyone obediently got into the trucks with no idea what the whole thing was about. In fact, the word 'kidnap' did cross my mind. Hilarious isnt it, imagine the headlines in the newspapers if that were to happen.

"The Star - 50 youth walked willingly into a kidnapper's truck in broad daylight" (or in this case, moonlight)

Ludicrous.

To cut the story short, we were all trucked off to a nearby police station where we were made to squat for hours in the police parking lot while they tested each and every one of us for drugs. Some of the 'victims' pleaded to be allowed to call their parents for they didnt want their parents to worry about their whereabouts. But Nooooo, the police didnt allow any such thing. All they did was to rudely scold us for 'staying out so late', for 'being disobedient' etc etc.

I mean, crap, who do you think you are? Our parents??

Most of us were in our 20's with proper jobs and educational backgrounds, and who contribute significantly to our country's progress. Which is more than I can say for those policemen.

Well, after squatting for hours like dungguls, we were finally brought back to ss15. Needless to say, most of us were pissed. We were disgusted at being treated like criminals. Disgusted at the way the police conducted themselves.

I seriously believe abusive behavior and plain rudeness has no place in a civilized society such as ours. If the police had the cow sense to identify who they were, and explain to us the nature of their operation, I am sure most of us would be willing to give our fullest cooperation.

I guess Civility is in short supply amongst the civil servants. The irony.

Anyway, that's just one of the memorable experiences I've had the honour of going through. Shown below are a few more cases which highlight just how sad, sad, SAD our police force is.

• A few robbers stormed into my friend's house a few years back. She barricaded herself in her room and called the police, only to have the police hang up on her as she was explaining the situation! She tried calling back again, THREE TIMES but surprise surprise, there was no answer.
• Another friend of mine went to a police station to make a report about a molestation attempt on her. In the station, she was greeted with the sight of a policeman surfing pornography on his clunky computer. The said policeman then proceeded to make crude, sexual remarks about her as she was explaining her situation.
• My uncle once got framed for kidnapping (he was found to be innocent), and the first thing the police asked for was...you guessed it, a bribe! Frankly, they couldnt care less whether you were guilty or not, heck, they'd even let a murdered go free so long as they get a few measly ringgit.
• A friend of mine recently got into a car accident whereby a motorcyclist was killed, through not fault of my friend. The police brought him to the police station, where they proceeded to try to intimidate and scare my friend by saying that such-and-such a case will usually result in a longgg jail term, that my friend will definitely be convicted etc etc. The reason for their doing so? Yup, you guessed it....they wanted my friend to bribe them to drop the case.

After reading through my rantings and ravings about our local police, you must be left wondering, am I just plain biased? Do I have nothing positive at all to say about our police?

Ahh, my intrepid reader, there is still a glimmer of hope. The recent actions of two policemen in PJ, Old Town have gone a long way towards redeeming the police force as a whole, and towards softening my impression of them somewhat.

What happened was this, it was during a friends recent birthday party when me and 2 others decided to go to my parked car to listen to a CD I was talking about. So there we were, sitting in my car listening to the CD when two policemen approached us on a motorcycle. They wanted to know what we were doing sitting in a parked car, with the steering lock still on, along a dark street in the middle of the night. They were quite catious initially, asking us for identification and other miscellaneous information but when they decided that we posed no threat, they just waved us off and tolds us that they were just checking on us because they thought we were acting 'suspiciously'.

Policemen actually doing their work?? No mention of any bribes whatsoever?? Morally responsible policemen?? Yes, shocking I know, but those two admirable policemen have just shown me otherwise.

May more of our policemen take after their footsteps, so that perhaps we, one day, will be able to look at our men in blue and not feel the urge to discharge the contents of our breakfast.