Malaysian police forced back to school
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A series of scandals has rocked law enforcers in Malaysia, and left them studying human rights, writes Nury Vittachi
Police will no longer be allowed to make up laws as they go along, delighted citizens in Malaysia have been told. Officers will instead have to refer to official statutes when dealing with citizens. They will also have to study civil rights and be helpful to individuals who ask for aid. The countrys 170 most senior police officers are this month [first two weeks of March] on a mandatory course in human rights, after a series of embarrassing incidents that have made them look like the Asian equivalents of the fabled worst officers in the Los Angeles Police Department. Among recent embarrassing events was the arrest of 10 elderly men for playing mahjong in a coffee shop. Although the game is technically illegal because it is associated with gambling, the community felt the swoop showed heavy-handed policing at its worst. The incident grew from a local embarrassment to the talk of the country after it was revealed that officers had invented their own punishment: they used the rule that they can give prisoners haircuts to shave the mens heads in a deliberate bid to humiliate them. Sympathy for the old men turned to outrage against the police, and Baldgate made it to the front pages of the newspapers. Police chiefs went cap in hand to the men, apologised, promised to punish the errant officers, and bought rounds of tea for the victims. Nine have agreed to let the matter rest, but the tenth plans to press charges for his extra-judicial razoring. The incident followed close on the heels of a scandal in which a person using a mobile phone as a camera filmed, through a window, a Chinese woman being forced to strip naked and assume a squatting position in front of a female officer. Police argued that this was a normal procedure to check for items hidden on the body, but the story had so many angles - nudity, ill-treatment of the innocent and institutionalised racism - that they were powerless to prevent it becoming investigated as a cause celebre. When the woman revealed that her only crime was to refuse to pay a bribe, and that a male officer had tried to peep through a doorway while she was being searched, the force was again disgraced. Then last month a young innocent man who was caught up in a drugs bust used a blogging site to place on the Internet a detailed record of how police treat innocent suspects - http://corrupted-malaysia.blogspot.com/ - and anger against the force grew. He told how the suspects were left hungry and thirsty and had to pay huge sums for bread and water. The series of incidents has raised memories of the towering shame the country felt after pictures of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, bruised and battered by police, were broadcast around the world in 1998. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed suggested at the time that the injuries could be self-inflicted. This week, Inspector-General of Police Bakri Omar called a meeting of top officers and slammed them for their behaviour and their lack of focus: "Why do we concentrate on things that are remeh-temeh [niggling or trivial] when there are more important things to do? He ordered them into a classroom to study human rights. But its good news that these issues are being discussed, say some observers. "The fact that the police are now making statements we never imagined they would have made in the past about openness and transparency is a good evolution in the democratic process," retired Sarawak police commissioner Yuen Yuet Leng told the press. But perhaps the real key development is the role that the press has played in these incidents. Malaysias newspapers have traditionally been in thrall to the government and the police. What has made the difference these past few months? The key seems to have been the Internet: with citizen journalists transmitting texts and videoclips on the web, they are identifying stories which have real news value, and the once-tame newspapers are finding themselves having to follow their lead. * Also by Nury Vittachi: The Dear Leader is making tracks Where falling in love can be a fatal mistake A menu with only one dish Transnationals swap ethics for profit in China China takes the brakes off motoring |