YOURSAY | The preferred channel to report criminal activities

YOURSAY | ‘The social media is the only avenue if the whistleblower does not trust the govt.’

Use proper channels to report criminal activities – Hamzah

Oriole: People resort to social media when proper channels often do not, and have not, worked. What should the common man do, Mr Minister? Suffer in silence?

Not everyone has the powerful reach that you and other elites have. Maybe it’s time for you to come down from your seat on high and find out the truth.

P Dev Anand Pillai: Minister, ask first why social media is used to report on criminal activities? The answer is very simple – with proper channels, nobody hears the complaints and takes action.

Take, for example, the local councils. All complaints are now to be made online but is there any action taken? We wait for one week and then two weeks. Yet no action is taken.

So what is the best way forward? Social media. Let the whole world know and then let’s see what happens.

If in the course of doing this, one were to lose one's life, then it obviously shows one glaring thing - our system has failed!

Wira: We are not naive, Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin.

Social media is the only avenue if the whistleblower or the aggrieved does not trust the government because of its dismal past record on taking action on such matters.

Bobby0: The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) does not want any publicity of allegedly not doing their job. Therefore, some have to resort to putting their lives in danger to get results.

We know what the outcome will be like. A scapegoat might get caught and take the blame and the bosses walk away free. Or the reason could be the accusations were false.

Living in this nation for over 60 years, we have experienced it all. So that is why as long as it does not affect you and your family, you close one eye to the activities around you.

It is only the brave that speak out. Sometimes, they land in trouble for their bravery.

So Home Minister, do not teach the public about making police reports. If only you do your work according to the vows you took before God, this situation would not arise.

BusinessFirst: Dear Minister, I think you have missed the point, whether deliberately or through lack of interest.

If you understand Bahasa Malaysia, you will know that after reporting to the authorities, Mohd Asri Hamid (the man who exposed gambling activities in Sungai Buloh) was confronted by the persons he complained about.

How on earth would those people know it was him unless there is collusion of some sort.

In fact, the very act of going public may have given Mohd Asri some protection for if something were to happen to him, the public outcry would make it very difficult to protect the criminals concerned.

Second, Mohd Asri did go to the proper authorities and used proper channels but nothing was done except perhaps some window dressing.

I think if you want people to use proper channels, you need to address the above two issues and clean up the PDRM.

DoIR: Indeed, it’s not that Mohd Asri did not report through the proper channels but his identity was exposed and this had endangered him.

He was betting his life on actions to be taken via video as it seemed his report was going nowhere. He is courageous, to say the least.

Many would have just kept quiet and walked away from those who have abused their power and authority.

Maybe certain mechanisms need to put in place to monitor the operations of these authorities to keep these abuses from happening. A task force from the HQ or MB’s office may be a good starting point.

The authorities have to move from reactive to proactive. Only then, we will feel safe.

Sapiens_001: The police should give an award to the whistleblower for his bravery for exposing these illegal activities as he has put his life on the line by exposing himself through social media.

Falcon: There are many super good, dedicated, and honest cops in our police force.

But acknowledge we must, that like all professions, there are 'bad apples' as well who should be removed. The faster the better.

Like those who are alleged to prey on foreign workers for RM150 and old ladies running food warongs without a Covid-19 temperature taker for RM200?

I remember an incident narrated to me by a former inspector-general of police (IGP) who was in his private vehicle and pulled up some cops who stopped two foreigners cycling in an industrial housing area in their uniform.

They were shocked. I was told that action was taken against them. Our present IGP also does not tolerate nonsense. Let's work together and bring forth change.

Newday: Hamzah, how to get through official channels if those in charge of the official channels are allegedly beholden to the people involved?

This is our one and only resort - post on social media or contact a journalist to highlight the matter.

Adik Hiak: For sure, we want change for the better. But my feeling is that in one or two weeks, after a few wise words from the ‘orang atas’ (bosses), all will be back to business as usual.

So I think we have to continue to put pressure with social media postings.

You can see how effective it is where politicians from both sides come out to say that action would be taken.  - Mkini