“Police force man to be jailed in return for wife to be acquitted”

(See NST 20/5/2010 at page 24)
History repeats itself. Way back in 1994 in my second year of legal practice this very same set of facts happened.
The husband Roslan was arrested with his wife Siti (not their real names) from their home in Selayang for drug trafficking.
It disturbs me right up to this date the scene of this young mother breast feeding her little baby in one corner of the court room when brought in for remand proceedings while her hands were still handcuffed.
In fact this incident was one of the main reasons why we had formed the NGO PoliceWatch and Human Rights Committee in 1999, the predecessor platform NGO to what is now more popularly known as Hindraf which was formed in 2006 with the body snatching case of Everest Moorthy, allegedly a muslim convert which even his legal wife was not aware of.
Now coming back to this arm twisting Polis Raja Di Malaysia enforcement of law and order we were later made to understand that Roslan was forced to plead guilty to a lesser charge of drug possession and not drug trafficking which carries a mandatory death sentence “in exchange” for his wife being released.
And even right up to day, history repeats itself with Md Zian Mat Yaman (46) similarly pleading guilty and being sentenced to seven years jail and 10 strokes of the rotan “in exchange” for his wife Rohani Mamat (37) being released.
What ‘summary” justice in a criminal prosecution? By use of arm twisting, the police force know that this couple do not have the money to engage lawyers or cannot raise the bail money, if not denied bail. What choice would this couple and hundreds if not thousands of others have?
Again what disturbs me in this administration of law and order is that while these couples may be the mere runners, the real top level drug lords and even their top brass policemen “profit sharing partners’ get away scot free.
While the police and the Attorney General’s illusionary wayang kulit, the real criminal drug lords and their cover the top brass policemen are on the loose. And the drug trade continues to this day.
And to add insult to injury the obsolete Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan is today trying to tell us stories of a mere 34 police personnel being taken “token” action against (BH 20/5/10 at page 8). (Four) Cops charged with accepting bribes” (NST 20/5/2010 at page 2) and “Criminals more violent now, says top cop" (NST 20/5/2010 at page 6).
And to create the impression that even 15 policemen had been shot dead or stabbed by criminals in the line of duty the obsolete IGP lumps this 15 cops story with others being run over. All these wayang kulit police stories in one day! We have monitored newsreports of policemen who had died in accidents in their live of duty. We have rarely read of policemen being shot dead by criminals.
The IGP should reveal the real figures and the real stories.
P. Uthayakumar