Can degree holding cops ensure that the police force’s reputation will be enhanced and police brutality be a thing of the past?
COMMENT
The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) is welcoming graduates into its fold but will having degree- holding cops mark the beginning of a ‘civilised’ police force and end of police brutality?
Will the highly educated cops be able to redeem the image of PDRM that has taken a beating due to the unruly and inhumane behaviour of its personnel?
As it stands, the PDRM has to work a lot harder to convince the rakyat that it can be trusted and relied upon, virtues which the force has lost due to its uncalled for aggressive nature.
PDRM has been around for 205 years but a shame that instead of walking tall as a reputed institution, the police force due to its shenanigans has left the rakyat scared and doubting the effectiveness of the force whose motto is ‘Firm, Fair and Prudent’ (Tegas, Adil dan Berhemah).
From rapes and nude squats in police lock-ups to abuse and death of detainees in prisons, the true calling of the PDRM has come into question.
Will bringing in graduates to serve as cops change all that and make PDRM the rakyat’s ‘knight and shining armour’?
Repeated calls to set up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) that could act against unscrupulous police personnel have been shot down by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.
The Home Minister continues to dismiss the urgency of IPCMC, in spite of the 2005 revelation by the Royal Commission of Inquiry led by a former judge that found the police to be brutal, inept and the most corrupt among the government departments.
Between 1999 and 2003, there were 5,726 formal corruption complaints involving the police force which led to the recommendation that the RMP be monitored by an independent watchdog.
Graduate or not, stop the brutality
Police statistics show that 147 people have died in police custody between January 2000 and February 2010.
Of the number, Malays stood at 64; Chinese (30); Indians (28); other races (eight) and foreigners (14).
The incessant calls for the IPCMC keep falling on deaf ears; meanwhile the rakyat continues to be the ‘punching bag’ of the PDRM, as was the case with Norizan Salleh in 2009.
Norizan, a single mother, sustained five gunshots fired by a cop and on Oct 15 this year filed a civil suit in High Court against the government, inspector-general of police, Sentul district police and police personnel Mohd Firdaus.
Norizan claimed the police violated its standard operating procedure when it opened fire at a moving car in which she was seated at the back. The Proton Perdana driven by Norizan’s friend was on the MRR2 highway when a police patrol car suddenly appeared from the right at 4am.
Mohd Firdaus who was one of the police personnel in the car took out a firearm and pointed at the car.
The incident involving Norizan is not the first and one doubts if it will be the last.
Disappointing the rakyat seems to come easy to PDRM as seen from its 2008 refusal to act on police reports lodged by parents against school teachers in a school in Taman Klang Jaya who subjected Indian students to physical and verbal abuse.
The police, like the Education Department decided to ignore the parents’ call for action against the racist teachers’ concerned who continued to teach in the alleged school.
Why was the police silent then, in spite of the teachers turning violent against the students?
Can the Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar assure the rakyat that with graduates donning the police
uniform, the force’s reputation would be enhanced and police brutality be a thing of the past?
PDRM must drop its ruthless image
A graduate himself, IGP Ismail is excited at having degree holders join the PDRM; it however remains to be seen whether these graduate-cops will be able to survive the ruthless system and remain uncorrupted, their compassion intact and devoid of the urge to kill at any time they so desire?
Incidents like that of S Mogan, 42, a mechanic who in February claimed he was assaulted and robbed by Rela personnel and policemen who wanted to force a confession out of him speaks volume of the need for the IPCMC.
A month later, 14-year-old Lim Hup Hwang was riding without a helmet when he reached a roadblock; in trying to stop the teenager, the policeman kicked Lim’s motorcycle causing the boy to fall and hit the road divider. Lim slipped into a coma with blood clots in his neck, neck sprain, head and ear bleeding. Lim also received stitches for the injuries all over his body.
Such cases and many more are testimony that it will take much more than merely hiring graduates as cops for the PDRM to win the rakyat’s trust.
To begin with, the police force must drop its ruthless reputation and portray a more humane image, one that is combination of both compassion and assertiveness – this will slowly but surely restore the people’s faith in the PDRM.
Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.
COMMENT
The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) is welcoming graduates into its fold but will having degree- holding cops mark the beginning of a ‘civilised’ police force and end of police brutality?Will the highly educated cops be able to redeem the image of PDRM that has taken a beating due to the unruly and inhumane behaviour of its personnel?
As it stands, the PDRM has to work a lot harder to convince the rakyat that it can be trusted and relied upon, virtues which the force has lost due to its uncalled for aggressive nature.
PDRM has been around for 205 years but a shame that instead of walking tall as a reputed institution, the police force due to its shenanigans has left the rakyat scared and doubting the effectiveness of the force whose motto is ‘Firm, Fair and Prudent’ (Tegas, Adil dan Berhemah).
From rapes and nude squats in police lock-ups to abuse and death of detainees in prisons, the true calling of the PDRM has come into question.
Will bringing in graduates to serve as cops change all that and make PDRM the rakyat’s ‘knight and shining armour’?
Repeated calls to set up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) that could act against unscrupulous police personnel have been shot down by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.
The Home Minister continues to dismiss the urgency of IPCMC, in spite of the 2005 revelation by the Royal Commission of Inquiry led by a former judge that found the police to be brutal, inept and the most corrupt among the government departments.
Between 1999 and 2003, there were 5,726 formal corruption complaints involving the police force which led to the recommendation that the RMP be monitored by an independent watchdog.
Graduate or not, stop the brutality
Police statistics show that 147 people have died in police custody between January 2000 and February 2010.
Of the number, Malays stood at 64; Chinese (30); Indians (28); other races (eight) and foreigners (14).
The incessant calls for the IPCMC keep falling on deaf ears; meanwhile the rakyat continues to be the ‘punching bag’ of the PDRM, as was the case with Norizan Salleh in 2009.
Norizan, a single mother, sustained five gunshots fired by a cop and on Oct 15 this year filed a civil suit in High Court against the government, inspector-general of police, Sentul district police and police personnel Mohd Firdaus.
Norizan claimed the police violated its standard operating procedure when it opened fire at a moving car in which she was seated at the back. The Proton Perdana driven by Norizan’s friend was on the MRR2 highway when a police patrol car suddenly appeared from the right at 4am.
Mohd Firdaus who was one of the police personnel in the car took out a firearm and pointed at the car.
The incident involving Norizan is not the first and one doubts if it will be the last.
Disappointing the rakyat seems to come easy to PDRM as seen from its 2008 refusal to act on police reports lodged by parents against school teachers in a school in Taman Klang Jaya who subjected Indian students to physical and verbal abuse.
The police, like the Education Department decided to ignore the parents’ call for action against the racist teachers’ concerned who continued to teach in the alleged school.
Why was the police silent then, in spite of the teachers turning violent against the students?
Can the Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar assure the rakyat that with graduates donning the police
uniform, the force’s reputation would be enhanced and police brutality be a thing of the past?PDRM must drop its ruthless image
A graduate himself, IGP Ismail is excited at having degree holders join the PDRM; it however remains to be seen whether these graduate-cops will be able to survive the ruthless system and remain uncorrupted, their compassion intact and devoid of the urge to kill at any time they so desire?
Incidents like that of S Mogan, 42, a mechanic who in February claimed he was assaulted and robbed by Rela personnel and policemen who wanted to force a confession out of him speaks volume of the need for the IPCMC.
A month later, 14-year-old Lim Hup Hwang was riding without a helmet when he reached a roadblock; in trying to stop the teenager, the policeman kicked Lim’s motorcycle causing the boy to fall and hit the road divider. Lim slipped into a coma with blood clots in his neck, neck sprain, head and ear bleeding. Lim also received stitches for the injuries all over his body.
Such cases and many more are testimony that it will take much more than merely hiring graduates as cops for the PDRM to win the rakyat’s trust.
To begin with, the police force must drop its ruthless reputation and portray a more humane image, one that is combination of both compassion and assertiveness – this will slowly but surely restore the people’s faith in the PDRM.
Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.
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