Malaysian police must learn to refrain from beating people

Credit must be given to the majority of our cops without whom there would not be peace and order in our society. Not all cops rob their victims. Not all cops abuse their authority. But there are enough black sheep in the force who have blatantly abused their authority much to the displeasure of the people. Some though have been chastised by the law.

Of late, too many cases of ‘abuse’ by cops are being reported in the media to the extent that the people could not accept the unruly manners some cops are behaving any more. The police force is a government agency; the police officers are paid with taxpayers’ money and they are employed to maintain law and order in society. Unfortunately, when some cops go on tarnishing the force’s name this reflects badly on the government.

What happened to the latest victim - Chia Buang Hing – is food for reflection. Chia claimed to have been beaten mercilessly at a few locations, including at a public car park. He also claimed that he was robbed of his money. If true, this tantamount to crime of assault and robbery and the cops responsible should be severely punished unless of course if they are covertly protected by the higher authority. Thus, the people hope that justice prevails to ensure support for the government.

In the case of the victim, he should press charges against the police and the court hearing must be conducted without fear or favour to ensure that justice is done. The unruly incident was reported widely in the alternative media. Unfortunately, the main stream media did not highlight the issue for reasons better known by these media. Perhaps, they went silent to let the case slip away into oblivion and be forgotten by the people.

Beating up a victim is fundamentally wrong. Even if the cops find a victim in the wrong, it’s totally irresponsible for them to bash up the victim. They are erroneously taking law into their hands and this has earned them the wrath of the people. With many cops against one victim, for instance, there are better ways to apprehend a wrongdoer – that is the victim can always be apprehended in a much civilised way.

The laws in a democratic society are that no person who is accused of wrongdoing could be beaten to a pulp or ‘robbed’ by the police. Many citizens in the past have alleged that they were victims of police abuse. Assaulting and ‘robbing’ a victim as alleged - including in some cases involving foreign workers in the country - has earned the wrath of the people against the police force.

The victim does not deserve such treatments from those who are enforcing the law. It only shows that some cops are just not professional enough. In some countries incidents of this nature would have seen the people going to the street demanding justice. We dearly hope that common sense would prevail among our people not to create such disorders in our society. The simple option now would be to vote out a system that does not favour the ordinary citizens.

On good governance, it’s high time that the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) is revived. If the incumbent government is reluctant to do so, let this be done by the alternative government when it comes to power.

The blatant disregard for the law by some errant cops is going to make the people disfavour the present government. This is going to see more votes going to the opposition in the next general election, as this is an option – hopefully to bring better governance to the country for the benefit of the people. When things get out of hand as far as the police are concerned, it is time then for the people to show their humble protest by voting for an alternative government.

The people desire a much responsible and accountable police force to ensure that their rights are safeguarded. We definitely need a better and a highly moral authority to make the necessary changes to the police force. No country can tolerate an obnoxious, impish, ravenous and corrupt police force that has no respect for human rights and human dignity.

The people should go for a system that ensures that the police are answerable to the people. Perhaps, we need a government that will put a stop to this unrestrained abuse of power by those with authority.

As for now, all political parties should condemn all acts of viciousness by some of these delinquent cops. All NGOs should articulate their concerns over such matters as well.

Be it as it may, our respect is always there for those police officers who have done their best for the country and its people. We shall not forget those officers who have sacrificed their life while performing their noble duty. Their contributions to peace and harmony in our society will, indubitably, remain unblemished on our mind. - Malaysia Chronicle