Foremen disappointed with lackadaisical attitude of police

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PLEASE ACT ON THIS CASE: Mordi holding the police report of the theft case. From left are Newsen, Dallysen and Dermady.

KUCHING: Three foremen of a construction site who on Wednesday successfully foiled an attempt to steal iron rods at their workplace and even managing to capture a suspect were left disappointed with the lackadaisical attitude of the police.

Speaking to reporters at the DAP Sarawak headquarters here yesterday; they said they were left waiting for several hours at the crime scene despite having already informed the police of their success to capture the suspect.

Eventually, they had to bring in the suspect to the police station on their own.

“We apprehended the suspect at about 6.30am (on Wednesday), although another suspect managed to escape. We called the police not long after that, and we also took the suspect’s motorcycle and the bundled iron rods as evidence.

“But the first police patrol car only came 30 minutes later, and left without recording statements or even taking in the suspect. They told us that there was another case somewhere else and that another patrol car would attend to us. The second car came almost an hour later, and also left. Only after the third car came, that we were told to go to the One Stop Centre in Simpang Tiga but we had to bring the suspect on our own,” they said.

The foremen comprised Newsen Niam, Dallysen Egai and Dermady Moktar. It was Dallysen who managed to pin down the suspect.

Dermady, who did most of the talking, said the police should not have let them take the suspect to the police station on their own because it would be risky.

“Would it not be more practical for the police officers to take in the suspect and handcuff him? We already had the suspect but it seemed the police did not want to take action. They (the third patrol car) said they would escort us from behind, but when we were driving, we did not see them and they only reached the police station (One Stop Centre) later than us.

“Imagine if the suspect had a dangerous weapon hidden somewhere and attacked us in the bid to escape. That would put our lives in danger, wouldn’t it?” questioned Dermady.

He also said he and the other foremen were appalled by the answer given by a few of the police officers who described the case as ‘kes kecil’ (small case).

“What’s worse is that our boss had to rent a lorry to transport the evidence. Nei boleh camya (how can this be?). I am also surprised that our earlier calls to the One Stop Centre were not answered,” he said.

Bandar Kuching MP’s special assistant Mordi Bimol, who was with them, pledged to bring the matter up to the attention of the police district chief.

He was confident that the Wednesday’s episode only involved a small number of policemen although he conceded that it gave a bad impression of the entire police force.

“I am sure not all police personnel are like them, only a few. But it still reflects badly on the PDRM (the Royal Malaysia Police). But I hope the police force, who is paid by the taxpayers’ money, would improve and give serious attention to all cases and not simply dismiss certain cases as small cases.

“If this attitude continues, then the criminals – in this case, the thieves – will continue committing crimes because they would think they can escape punishment,” he said.

He added the police also took lightly another case involving Newsen in September when he was assaulted by a group of people after trying to stop them from collecting ‘protection money’ from construction site workers at Sungai Apong here.