Don’t panic!

THE police have assured the public that the streets in Malaysia are safe despite the recent spate of high noon murders in Kuala Lumpur and Sibu. Everything else is under control.

What else can one expect them to say?

One simple point to remember is that as the custodians of law and order as well as the catchers of crooks in the country, the police establishment is under pressure to solve cases of serious crimes yet unsolved while receiving more and more reports of new ones. Many of the officers are overworked and, so they think, underpaid. Overstretched personnel and possibly working on tight budgets must be frustrating.

The least the rest of us can do is to appreciate this situation in which the police are in.

Although the police bosses know what the actual situation is, yet they cannot reveal to all and sundry the worst side of things for fear that the people may panic. For instance, the police cannot reveal the exact whereabouts of criminals they are looking for, who may be in your neighbourhood, but we may rest assured that necessary preparations to protect the good people in the community from harm have been made without fanfare.

The cops may not be in full uniform but that doesn’t mean they are not around. There is a reason why they are called mata-mata (eyes) – they are eyes. It’s the decent people in the community who should play their part as the ears of the police by reporting any suspicious characters they see in the vicinity to the police.

That’s the spirit expected of law abiding members of the community. At the same time the witnesses or informers of any crime must be protected by the law and the police.

The recent spate of murders in Kuala Lumpur and Sibu have been partly attributed by some social analysts to the release of former convicts or ex-detainees of places like Simpang Renggam, and the absence of preventive laws such as the infamous ISA and the Emergency Ordinance. Several former police officers believe that those were effective tools with which to maintain law and order during their days in the service. But they may also remember that when these laws were in use there were abuses of power – power to arrest and detain any suspect without trial, not necessarily crooks but any political dissenter classified as security risks. That is why the two ordinances have rightly been discarded. So many innocent citizens had languished in detention centres for years as if they were communists and traitors found hiding behind every tree.

New law must prevent abuse of official powers

It is hoped the new law which the Prime Minister is going to introduce in parliament next month to replace the EO or ISA will have an inbuilt mechanism to prevent abuse and, more importantly, influence by politicians in power. Call the new ordinance by any name but it should empower the police to detain troublemakers, grill them for truth but also oblige the police to send them for trial as soon as possible. Let the courts deal with such cases according to the laws of the land.

Give the police the necessary tools and they will do the job – give them the latest sophisticated gadgets for surveillance, for lie detection, for DNA testing, and provide them with enough funds and public backing.

When the new law is in place, the police will have to adapt to the new provisions. It may the case of old wine in a new bottle or new wine in an old bottle, let it be because the overall aim is to maintain law and order for the sake of the happiness of the majority of citizenry. With the necessary measures to forestall or prevent official abuse, the additional law may be helpful to minimise incidents of serious crimes in the country.

There is already some legislation with the same aim. The Penal Code still exists, so does the Police Act, and these are good enough tools with which to maintain law and order if there are a sufficient number of enforcers, professionally trained. But another law with more teeth has been mulled over and there may be some good reason yet unknown why it is being introduced, we will see how it works. The authorities cannot resort to the use of the ISA or Emergency Ordinance any more but will have to adapt to the new law accordingly.

Identities of eyewitnesses of a crime or informers must be kept secret and their persons and those of their families must be protected against physical harm. That must be provided for in the law if the public is to have full confidence in its application in addition to the existing legislation.

That the country needs peace and order for the happiness of its people and for an environment conducive for trade and commerce cannot be over emphasised. That the role of the police and those of other institutions of governance are as vital as ever is worth repeating. This is what frightens the criminals more than anything else. The police must be several steps ahead of the crooks and, as a friend of mine says, “must have a criminal mind” as well.

Parliamentarians are humans and as far possible must leave no ambiguities or loopholes in the law when they discuss the proposals contained in the Bill of the new legislation next month, thus leaving no problem of interpretation for the courts of law. By the time any case falling under the new is brought to the attention of the court for decision the damage will have been done; avoid such pitfalls as far as human foresight allows.

This season of murders will be over sooner or later and the police will report to us of the crime scene soon enough. Meanwhile, help the police with whatever we can so that they will do the job well without too much stress. The few cases of police individuals suspected of being involved in crimes are not abnormal. Among so many sheep there must be a few black ones. On the whole I should say the men and women in blue are doing their job the best they can under the circumstances to keep law and order so that the rest of us may sleep in peace.

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