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Monday, May 4, 2015

A road map for police – J.D. Lovrenciear

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If you researched the Polis Diraja Malaysia or PDRM as we today have fondly come to regard them, you would be amazed with their long history of transformation down the decades.
But today, in the wake of endless arrests of lawmakers and citizens involved in peaceful rallies as guaranteed under the constitution, the public perception of PDRM cannot be dismissed without serious thinking and debate.
To begin with, the PDRM motto is “Firm, Fair and Prudent”. It is a principle that all fair-minded loyal citizens of the nation will applaud and honour the police force for living up to this motto.
The modern police organisation which was officially formed in 1807 has its roots as way back as the Malaccan Sultanate. In 1958, Tuanku Abdul Rahman bestowed the “royal” title to the Malaysian Federations Police Force.
And in 1963, the Royal Malaysian Police Force took form with the merger of the various forces in the Federation, North Borneo and Sarawak.
That is a long road taken by the police force in its historic route of transformation, aspiring to be the vanguard of a peaceful nation-status growth and development.
Looking at the logo of PDRM, too, gives Malaysians today great hope in the forces. Their flag and insignia have a blue background symbolising the Malaysian masses. It is not by any chance, design or otherwise meant to signify a blind patriotism to the Barisan National political coalition.
The Arabic letterings announce the name “Allah” and Prophet Muhammad. Here again, it gives the masses a great assurance of a living justice on earth and being guarded by the noble teachings of a great prophet of our times.
The crown is a panegyric reference to the Yang diPertuan Agong. Again, it connotes without any shades of doubts that the police force are non-political as much as the citizens behold with reverence the rulers as being above politics.
In summary, the defining promise of our Royal Malaysian Police Force is to uphold justice and the security of the people of Malaysia.
Hence, when we witness and read reports of how legitimate members of parliament are waylaid and arrested even on highways and kept waiting on for hours before they are released for failure to obtain a detention order from the courts, what do the public conclude?
It is unfortunate that the many actions and inactions of PDRM continue to harden the public opinion that our men and women in blue are acting in the interest of political expediency rather than being a vanguard for justice, honour and safety of all law-abiding citizens.
At some point, the inspector-general of police must take cognisance of public opinion. In today’s environment of a networked society, being savvy with the tools of communication (like Twitter for example) is no yardstick to measure excellence on the job.
On the contrary, how the police force manages public perception is the clue to confidence building.
Considering the long and illustrious history of our nation’s police force, we citizens should not let any action or inaction by the police force to suffer even the slightest blemish. We need to tell the police chief that we are proud of our legacy and we want PDRM to be the world standard.
Our founding fathers and past leaders, including our rulers had the foresight and the wisdom to give the police force its rightful name, insignia and fundamental cornerstone of principles upon which it is to evolve over the centuries.
As such, the road map ahead for PDRM is to work hard to be the non-political, universal vanguard serving the nation. The only enemy of the PDRM is also to be the enemy of the citizens. That enemy is anyone who is corrupt, deceitful and robbing or threatening this nation of people of peace, harmony, and progress.
When citizens and their leaders take to the streets in a peaceful manner and as guaranteed by the Federal Constitution to express their grave concerns on issues – be it political, social, economy or the environment, it is the duty of every cop to pave the way of safety and security for the subjects of His Majesty.
Arresting the leaders that citizens through the democratic process have elected to be their MPs and more so doing it in a manner that makes a mockery of the very arrest, detention and failure to be legitimised by the judiciary immediately erodes the credibility of the police leadership.
PDRM must rethink. The times have changed. The networked society is so very different from the times of the Malaccan Sultanate or even the British Empire of 1795.
* J.D. Lovrenciear reads The Malaysian Insider.

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