“Why stepped on his head when he’s unarmed? Just handcuff him for it’s just over a packet of air ketum”

 

SUCH was the initial reaction to an apparent strong-arm tactic of the police in a viral video depicting the arrest of a 32-year-old youth in Kulim, Kedah whereby the cops claimed to have found two packages of suspected ketum leaf decoction while an initial urine screening test found the suspect positive for methamphetamine.

According to police account, the suspect has acted aggressively by kicking the motorbike belonging to a police officer prior to attempting to escape in a dangerous manner, including riding his bike against the traffic flow before being successfully nailed down after a 5km chase.

“Initial investigations found that the case occurred at 11am when police officers were conducting a crime prevention patrol and arrested the suspect on Jalan Sungai Ular,” Kulim District Deputy Police Chief Deputy Superintendent Tengku Mohd Faisal Tengku Yeng pointed out in a statement.

The case is being investigated under Section 30(3) of the Poisons Act 1952, Section 15(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and Section 42(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987. The suspect is expected to be brought to the Kulim Magistrate’s Court this morning (April 21) for a remand application.

Interestingly though, the public has their own interpretation of the incident as the cyberspace was abuzz with outrage over the pijak kepala (stepping on the head) action by the police on the suspect as depicted by the 29-second clip.

Kedah-based digital creator Khairull Fadzillah fired the first salvo by highlighting the fact that the suspect “didn’t fight back” yet the police resorted to pull him down from his bike before “stepping on his face”.

“I really respect the police but this is too much … His parents should sue the police (for such brutality) . If you don’t have money, find a legal aid bureau,” he fumed in a series of Facebook posts on the incident.

This was when the suspect’s elder brother came forward to acknowledge that while his sibling “who was on his way back from work had with him a packet of air ketum (kratom water)”, it was inappropriate for one of the cops “to put his leg on my brother’s face”.

Apparently, Khairull eventually accompanied the suspect’s family to lodge a police report at the Kulim district police headquarters (IPD) last night (April 20) with the intention of driving home the message that cops should not go overboard by literally stepping on the head of others.

However, the so-called quest to defend the suspect’s dignity was seized upon by the rightist fraternity by portraying how the authorities “only dare to be garang (act harshly) against the Malays yet are auto mute when it comes to the illegal land encroachment case in Raub or kuil haram (illegal temples)”.

While many commenters agreed that the cops “shouldn’t have abused their authorities by resorting to violence”, such double standards narrative has seemingly become prevalent in recent times as evident from this FB post by Kulim Media TV.

Comparison was made with regard to the nature of crime and the very fact that the suspect was even unarmed unlike the recent case of “the Indian who was armed with a parang chasing the police down the road”.

Editor’s Note: Lorry driver P. Mahendran, 31, who went berserk over a misunderstanding regarding a restaurant bill and seen in a viral video chasing a police officer while wielding a weapon recently has been fined RM9,100 by the Magistrates’ Court in Telok Datok, Selangor.

Such racist sentiment which paints a picture of the Malays being a victim in their motherland could be a ploy fuelled by the opposition to undermine the Madani administration in the run-up to the Melaka and Johor state elections or even a snap national poll.

Like it or not, such trend seems very much is here to stay. 

- focus malaysia