‘Docile’ Malays turned into criminals

There may be no Malay gangsters that can rival Kalimuthu of Batang Kali or Botak Chin, but Umno has spawned Malays who are vicious and thieving at every level.

COMMENT

It would be difficult to find among the Malays any distinct ethnic traits that would enable anyone to label any group of Malays as being a criminal class.

You cannot say that the Malays from Selangor are more criminally inclined than those from Kelantan.

Nor can you say that rural Malays are more inclined to criminality or illicit behaviour than the Malays in the urban area.

There are no Malay gangsters that could rival Kalimuthu of Batang Kali or Botak Chin. The Mat Rempits are Malays but the most damage they do are to themselves, not to others.

I cannot recall any criminal incident of any significance that the Malays are or were involved in.

In all, the Malays, considering that they make up over 60 percent of the population, are a docile and law-abiding lot.

Yes, there is no distinct Malay criminal class and yet the most vicious amongs us Malaysians are those within PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police). And those within PDRM are mostly Malays.

PDRM’s Malay thugs

These well-armed Malays in helmets and heavy boots with truncheons and menancing riot gear think nothing about wading into unarmed Malaysian turf and beating the life out of these Malaysians – men and women, the young and the old.

And they are a law unto themselves. They have been conditioned by the government to think that they have the right to treat the people of this country worse than the way we treat our animals.

Just consider what they do to people who are cruel to animals in Queensland:

“Queensland’s Animal Care and Protection Act of 2001 provides for a massive maximum $75,000 fine for animal cruelty or two years’ jail. For a breach of duty of care to an animal, the fine is a maximum of $22,000 and/or six months’ jail.”

Here (in Malaysia) what these policemen do are par for the course. Malaysian police officers “murder” suspects in custody and “torture” detainees under the ISA with a familiarity of seasoned operatives skilled in their work.

Their response to queries about these excesses is given in a contemptuous manner like that of the SS troops under Hitler or the Tom To Macoutes under Papa Doc in Haiti.

This is what our police have become – no longer regarded as the defender of the rakyat but an offender capable of inflicting harm and terror on the ordinary people.

Maybe this is what this Umno government wants PDRM to be – if so, then it only shows what mayhem these Malays are capable of doing if they are let loose while in uniform.

I shudder to think what the army would be capable of doing if called upon to do so by this same Umno government.

It is also the Malays in PDRM who are the first face of corruption that the public sees.

Un-Islamic acts anytime, anywhere

Every day thousands upon thousands of Malaysian find themselves in situations with Malay policemen who think nothing about asking for a bribe in order to allow traffic infringements to be “excused”.

And these happens during the Ramadan month, during the hours of prayers. It happens at anytime and anywhere they can get a dollar out of the long-suffering public.

And here again another Malay criminal class can be said to be alive and well!

Those civil servants in the various ministries do the same thing, too.

You go to Immigration. You pay money to get things done and you pay them to Malays. You go to JPJ (Road Transport Department) and Puspakom to get things done and you get things done by paying Malays, too.

Malays are the people who would be involved in the evaluation of quotations, tenders, projects and any spending by this Umno government.

All these people are another class of criminal Malays that has come into being because the Umno government allows for this criminal culture to flourish in order for Umno itself to flourish.

But the biggest criminal class of Malays are without doubt the Malay politicians who are in Umno.

Umno legitimised stealing

Think of it – who are the biggest thieves of our nation’s wealth? Politicians. And the majority of politicians who are in power are Malays within Umno.

And it is these Malay politicians in Umno, to my shame, who have been instrumental in the Malays being labelled as the biggest thieves of our nation’s wealth.

Allow me to quote Thomas Paine: “He who has robbed another of his property, will next endeavour to disarm him of his rights, to secure that property; for when the robber becomes the legislator he believes himself secure.”

Now isn’t this how Umno works? Umno governs our nation. What these Umno politicians take, they take legally.

And when you can legislate to make your taking of the nation wealth legal – you really have got it made.

And yet despite the harm they have done to our nation, we have not seen one politician hanged for their crime because they call what they do “public service” – when actually the only service they do is to themselves.

Umno has got the best Malay politicians that money can buy.

What is our history now for the past 20 over years since Dr Mahathir Mohamad took over?

It is simply a history of how Malays who are Umno politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of our nation. Billions plundered by those Malays in high public office who abused the executive responsibility entrusted to them by the public.

I need not go further than to remind you of the RM$500 million given in commission by our then Defence Minister Najib Tun Razak to Razak Baginda for the purchase of the Scorpene submarine.

And the recent and still unravelling, National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) debacle whose mind-boggling purchases of real estate properties by a business supposedly doing cattle farming is not only in the realms of Bernard Madoff, but puts to shame even what Robert Kuok or Li Ka Shing would have done with their money.

And these are all Malays who do these things!

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.