Police will lose respect of the people

The government is losing its senses and becoming obsessed when it empowers the police to arrest people participating in a peaceful demonstration..

This does not auger well for the image of Malaysia in the international arena as we can see foreign tourists are already passing adverse comments like ‘this government is crazy’ ‘the police are rude and atrocious’ etc.

The police are forced to do their duty as instructed by the government in power. Actually, the police - by their own code of conduct - should only do the right thing to maintain law and order in the nation. In order to sustain their neutrality and dignity, they should not be seen taking sides just to satisfy the ruling party .

If the police continue to harass the people when the people do things peacefully, the police will soon lose the respect and cooperation of the people.

The police must understand that respect and cooperation of the people are an integral part in solving crime which is on the rise in the country. Many high-profile cases are still unsolved despite wide publicity and the police should concentrate on solving such crimes especially kidnaping, rape and the killing of young children.

Its no wonder the country’s crime rate is up as the the police force is instead deployed to curb peaceful demonstrations. The Inspector-General of Police should politely tell the prime minister that the police’s priorities are to prevent crime, solve crime and maintain law and order.

At the recent Protes assembly, the police outnumbered the number of peaceful demonstrators giving a very distasteful image of Malaysia.

It gives the impression that Malaysia is a police state.
This is also evident with the Hindraf 5 leaders, who are themselves lawyers, being detained under ISA on false charges of being terrorists, traitors etc.

Further, it is indeed ruthless of the police to handcuff one of the Hindraf lawyers, P Uthayakumar when he was hospitalised following a five-day fast he and the four other detainees undertook for their release.

The IGP should realise that these men are not guilty of what they were charged with and should recommend to the PM their immediate release from detention.