The offences of not wearing what is mandatory and wearing that which is prohibited

by Haris Ibrahim

4

Saturday morning, I spoke at the MCLM Citizen Empowerment School.

Later, I headed out to a couple of meetings.

Won’t say where this happened as I do not wish to risk exposing the identity of the officers concerned.

I turned left at a traffic light and was flagged down by a police officer.

I immediately knew what the offence was.

I wasn’t wearing the seat belt.

Pulled up and waited for the officer.

He came round to my side, and then looked aghast at me and exclaimed, “Alamak, ini kesalahan besar, encik”.

I was puzzled, and asked him what was this ‘kesalahan besar’.

Pointing to my chest, he asked, “Mana boleh pakai baju tu?”.

I had completely forgotten that I was wearing my yellow ‘BERSIH 2.0′ t-shirt.

“Apa salah pakai baju ini?”, I asked.

By now, a second police officer came up to the car.

“Encik, ini kesalahan serius ni, encik,”, the second officer offered.

“Pakai baju kuning salah? Ada lojik ke, encik? Encik nak cek kereta saya kalau ada senjata?”, I asked the second officer.

“Ala, encik mesti tahu kerajaan sudah haramkan baju ini. Tak boleh pakai. Kesalahan besar, encik,”, the second officer shot back.

“Encik berdua ada hadir kat himpunan pada 9 Julai, tak?, I asked them both.

The first officer kept silent.

“Ah, gila ke? Kita polis, lah! Mana boleh?”, the second replied.

“Saya ada diperhimpunan itu.Encik ingat saya hanya berjuang untuk masa depan anak saya, tak berjuang untuk anak encik berdua ini?”, I asked.

The first officer responded.

“Kami tahu encik”, was all he said.

I shot another question to both.

“Berapa gaji kamu berdua?”, I asked.

The seond officer appeared to take offence to my question.

“Apa kena mengena dengan ni?”, he asked.

“Encik tahu tak gaji polis kat Singapore hampir 6 kali daripada gaji encik?”, I shot back.

“Betul ke?”, the second officer asked.

“Betul. Saya nak tanya, Singapore ada getah tak, ada kelapa sawit tak, ada minyak tak, ada gas tak? Tak de, kan? Malaysaia adakan? Kenapa gaji polis di Singapore 6 kali lebih tinggi daripada gaji encik dua ni?”, I asked.

Both officers just looked at me in silence.

“Sebab 40 tahun UMNO dah liwat rakyat. Habis segala kekayaan rakyat dicuri UMNO. Rakyat sekarang menuntut untuk keadilan untuk semua. Untuk polis jugak”,I said.

Pin drop silence for a good 10 seconds.

Then the first officer extended his arm and shook hands with me and said, “Lain kali pakai seat belt, encik. Dan hati-hati pakai t-shirt tu.”.

That made my day.