policing the police

I wrote about the authority’s bid to flush underground dissent in the form of bloggers to the surface through formation of bloggers union. Many surfaced from of underground, formed the union only to be blown apart. There were those brave seasoned bloggers that could not care less of the impending implication and obliteration. There were also however those that sincerely thought that the government of the day was serious about recognising rights of these bloggers to continue to air their opinions in cyberspace. This behaviour is down right naïve if not plain stupid. Do they really expect a corrupt institution that rule over half a century with clasp iron fists to transform into a wimp overnight? Just accept it that transform they will not and change they will never do!

It is easy for one to let off his or her guards especially when one is tired physically and mentally having to struggle for more than ten years assuming one was awaken in 1998. Those who were children (below the age of 12) in 1998 are now voters in their own right. These adults are now making up a big portion of the population and a glaring fact is that they cannot comprehend the struggle that we are putting up. To them, some fragment of the society is doing things that make no sense to them at all. Those that can think for themselves and have the intelligence to do so will naturally assume the struggle.

Those with this so called intelligence or a “capacity to reason” are few in numbers. The 80-20 rule prevails. Only 20% has the capacity to think. The rest are the ones that need to be convinced of the sanctity of this struggle to free ourselves from clutches of tyrants that abuse powers at will and subject citizens to unending hardship and tyranny.

I was a student in London when Tory rules and the miners were on strikes. From Newcastle to London there were strikes almost daily. Police were storming the “scabs” as these miners were referred to. The whole UK was like war zones. I could not understand why these miners were throwing tantrums. I did not bother to read their plight. I was at the end of my teenage age and about to become an adult. I understood little. To me, filling concert halls night after night and week after week was far more interesting. How could I appreciate sufferings of miners losing their jobs and an ability to earn a living!

How about police brutality? I was acquainted with a one time Malaysian student that failed her studies and continued living in the UK having married an Irish chap in the Midlands. She was screaming police brutality almost daily and she referred to these men-in-arms as “bastards”. I understood little and ridiculed her every action. I was indeed mistaken. These police are actually real bastards after all. As I arrived in the UK when events than turn men-in-arms to bastards had long gone, I could not understand peoples’ resentment. Police institution has become tool for Tories to silent dissent and the fact that the police chose to do so willingly was testimony of the dire state to which the nation has been reduced to.

Fast forward twenty years and I am witnessing a similar pattern right inside my backyard. Police stoop too low to be passed on simply as a coincidence. The whole institution is corrupted to the core. The mistake that Badawi regime did was to maintain the chief of police all in the name of avoiding a witch hunt in the wake of leadership change or avoiding victimisation and being humane. Likewise, institution that safeguards the law was equally tainted and left to operate in that sorry state as well.

Fracas in the Perak state assembly was testimony of police stooping far too low by conspiring with BN to wrest control state legislative assembly through vile, immoral and unlawful manner. Meteoric rise in crime rates and lawlessness seems to grip the nation so much so that citizens no longer feel safe. Even the OCPD was not spared. One OCPD was reported robbed in his own house where he was tied and gagged! Rapes increased and snatch thieves killed their victims in the process of practicing their professions. What sort of police institution is safeguarding our rights as citizens of this blessed land of ours?

It is not only a small segment of the police force is used by BN to promulgate their course but the whole institution allowed itself to be intimidated into doing its bidding. Again my favourite subject of the central part of the police force the intelligence unit aka the special branch (SB)! Intelligence is central and crucial to the smooth and efficient running of the police force. When this particular unit spends almost its entire time on spying on and diffusing and sabotaging the opposition, this explains failures in other crucial aspects of safety of citizens and the nation as a whole.

Policing is in itself a specialised profession. If we can get the police force to do their job of policing, there are numerous examples and role models that we can emulate. Whenever we speak on the subject of transformation or change management inevitably we will come across a famous character by the name of Bill Bratton will surface. His turnarounds of the New York and Boston police forces were subject of great interests to proponents of transformation exercise. Again I wish to stress on the word “IF” here. If our Malaysian police force is serious enough about doing their job instead of being tool of BN, we will see a safe Malaysia for all to enjoy. Is it much to ask for a mere citizen like me?

troubadour

For those who want to read a bit more on Bill Bratton, please go here: http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=119&subid=156&contentid=251223