We need to police study tours

In 1999, When I confronted the chief of a local council on reasons for a delegation to visit South Africa, he had a prepared answer: "Kita pergi bukan main-main atau buat sight-seeing. Kita buat lawatan sambil belajar. (We are going not for fun or to sight-see. We are going on a study tour.)"

That phrase - "lawatan sambil belajar" - has become the hallmark of all travel (read junkets and paid-holidays) undertaken by civil servants.

In early February, 2006, I decided to wait at the KL International Airport for the arrival of a flight from Mauritius. I had wanted to talk to members of a delegation from the Selayang Municipal Council, which included nine councillors, the president, the secretary and his wife, two officials and four businessmen who had contracts with the council. 

They had been away on a week-long lawatan sambil belajarsojourn in South Africa and Mauritius.

I had in jest penned that I did not have time to prepare a banner with the words: “Selamat Kembali Wira-Wira Negara (Welcome home national heroes)”! 

What we learnt later was that the delegation inspected toilets in Mauritius and a council-run crematorium in Cape Town. So much for the "belajar" (study) art of that holiday paid by the residents of Selayang, but there was hardly a word on what they did on the remainder of the trip.

Similarly, I wrote on a delegation led by former Selangor Menteri Besar Mohd Khir Toyo who went to Holland and Austria to “study ways to use rivers in the state” to ease congestion on our roads.

This was followed by a nine-member team from the Terengganu Government led by its then Menteri Besar Ahmad Said who led a “research team” to Antartica to study “climate change.” 

A stopover in Chile afforded them enough time for R&R. The trip didn’t come cheap. It cost taxpayers’ RM846,000.

So, the nation is fixated and waiting with bated breath for some answers from the Inspector General of Police who led a team of senior officers, plus some wives, to Istanbul to attend training on initiatives to combat online gambling.

We are told that it did not cost the taxpayer a single sen and no government funds were involved – the trip was funded by the lottery company Da Ma Cai.

On what basis did the minister-in-charge approve this trip? If it was a study trip as claimed, can the itinerary be produced? The only one available must be the one from the in-bound travel agent who looked after the delegation.

Why Istanbul? Have the Turks discovered a novel way in combatting on-line gambling? Have they introduced a fool-proof system to identity illegal bookies?

In Malaysia, access to most on-line betting sites (including those based in Turkey) have been blocked. What else is new?

Sponsored or otherwise, was it really a learning trip? From the photographs that were posted on whistleblower site Sarawak Report, there was hardly anything to indicate this, except for a group photograph in front of the Jockey Club.

We have over the years witnessed with disgust, pain and a deep sense of anguish the erosion of the image and reputation of the police force. The developments which have been highlighted in the media represent fatal blows to anyone advocating the concept of a “clean police force.”

It is no use having people signing integrity pledges which are not worth the paper they are written on. It is no use putting up huge banners proclaiming a “No Gift” policy when red packets are distributed freely.

“Operation Gobi” in Malacca four years ago may be a distant memory, but the sequence of events showed the involvement of top brass. Some were arrested and large sums of money were recovered. Even a corporal was found to have RM800,000 in his house.

Nothing has happened - it was during a different regime and a different head. The case was hushed at the insistence of certain personalities. The rakyat have a right to demand an explanation.

Many other instances of waywardness of the police force have been chronicled in the media, and put together, they could be called a “Catalogue of Shame.”

Instead of addressing these issues, if the big-wigs gallivant at the expense of a licenced lottery company, it certainly raises eyebrows.

The powers-that-be in Putrajaya should not be silent spectators and watch with folded arms or offer protection to such misfeasance, but instead show their resolve that they want people of integrity at the highest levels.

And the top-brass of the police should be exemplary in their conduct in and out of office (and uniform) so that citizens hold them in esteem and give them the respect that policemen with integrity deserve.

R. Nadeswaran is a veteran journalist who has written extensively on lawatan sambil belajar and other shenanigans of our civil servants and some sectors of the uniformed service. Comments to citizen.nades22@gamil.com - Mkini