cookie-cutter comments

I don’t know why but it feels like a Friday. It’s felt like a Friday ever since my company announced that we’d be forced to clear our leave, with the exception of a few days brought forward. That would set me up for 2 weeks of doing completely nothing. Completely nothing. The thought of that just washed away any other thoughts salaried workers think of come year-end. It’s made me more of a rabbit on hyperdrive digging away at holes in the ground, trying to finish up stuff I’d have left over till next month to do. Unfortunately, that also means I’ve been having less sleep than required. Hazardous, my colleagues say, bah fuck: I’ve got more days of leave to clear than they — all of them — have.

Ha. Haha. Ha.

Pathetic isn’t it?
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Some comments and thoughts on what I’ve read so far of the Amnesty International report “Malaysia: Towards Human Rights Policing” which I think we should all give a look through. Among the things mentioned is something I’ve tried putting into words in my previous post here and elsewhere. The same sentiment is worded more clearly in the above report:

“It is widely acknowledged in studies of police that they cannot be effective unless they have the consent of the people being policed. This is achieved when society believes that policing is impartial and carried out on behalf of all the community, rather than favouring certain groups within it. Further, a police service will be most effective, and will maintain the confidence, trust and respect of the public, when it is representative of the community.”

And,

“The [UN General Assembly] Resolution [34/169] and the [UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials 1979], by setting out that ‘every law enforcement agency should be representative of and responsive and accountable to the community as a whole‘, establishes a fundamental standard on the nature of human rights-based policing, and the relationship police should have with the communities they serve and the political system within which they function”

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For those interested, Amnesty International had posted a rather long document on their recommendations for police reform in Malaysia. Isn’t it sad? We’ve had a Royal Commission to examine our police force, and outsiders making benign recommendations and still nothing seems to change. You can find a link over here:

Malaysia: Towards Human Rights-based Policing

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It’s been a crazy past few days, but it’s gratifying to see the nation up in arms over the police abuse scandal - even more so than the AP abuse scandal. Everyone seems to be talking about it. My colleagues are a bit more blaise about it all, mostly because we all seem up close and personal how the police deal with matters.

I’ll have to look out for the news tomorrow in the papers: the incumbent either reacts in the way the public expects it to, or there will be more murmurs in the dark about abuse. To have all of this come at the heels of the Royal Commission on the Police is even more telling: that all of this goes on unchecked, despite the spotlight being on the police at the time.

The police have always had an image problem. As one commenter on another site concluded, it appeared as if the police and the incumbent works hand-in-glove with each other. I wonder how much of this is true, and I wouldn’t want to speculate without getting some facts. But the questions now are more insistent than ever.

It almost makes me forget I’m still doing office work at home.

A quick update to my previous post:

• Anwar Ibrahim speaks out about the abuse scandal in the Taipei Times over here. Having been a victim himself, this statement could potentially blow the lid off the whole inner workings of the police if used carefully.
• Carboncopy’s found a BBC news article on the Deputy IGP Musa’s statement contradicting PM Abdullah. Now that it’s out in the open that his statement’s contradictory, you can be dead certain of his resignation. PM Abdullah can’t back out and claim the IGP misunderstood (his statement is very clear) without looking weak and ineffectual, and the IGP is in a corner. Either he resigns or retracts his statement, launches a very public investigation into the actions of the policewoman.
• Unfortunately, this Telegraph newsbit captures the situation succintly. As much as we need focus on the abuse, it will be inevitable that the race card gets tossed in. Hopefully we can stay the course and not let this be another reason for nationalists to wave the kris and gloss over everything with threats about ‘May 13th’.
• Girl of May’s posted an interesting link to a whole list of police abuses reported in our local dailies; note, of the cases reported, I have no clear idea which of these reports have been found in Malaysian courts to withstand due process.
• Most infuriating of all is a post from Teresa Kok over here. That she needs to be mindful of repercussions in our country is just very, very telling. Accidents do happen, don’t they? Let’s not be naive: something may happen. Bloody police state.

Some comments: Has anyone wondered how anyone would have the balls to contradict the DPM’s statement about the nature of the abuse? I mean, Deputy IGP Musa very well knows what the politicians from BN are saying about this. So where does he get the gumption to speak as he did?

Arrogance? Or, really, something else?

Ah.. no, no this isn’t a cover up, this is about attacking targets of their choosing. Instead of prosecuting the policewoman in that infamous video clip, the Police are going after the person who took the video clip. It’s all over the Star.

Who shot the scenes? This is the crux of police investigations into the controversial video clip showing a naked Chinese woman doing ear squats while in police custody.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan said whoever took the video clip - whether from the force or a civilian – would be charged under the Penal Code with insulting the modesty of a person or intruding into the privacy of a woman.

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Just considering some things, more speculation and nothing concrete. I’ve been thinking about the current police abuse situation and trying to piece together some events that have occurred. I make some general statements, true, but more in the vein of speculation, so forgive me if I offend.

1. Playing Kingmaker
The by-election in Pengkalan Pasir. According to this post and a Malaysiakini report, Anwar Ibrahim is out playing Kingmaker for a PAS candidate. It sounds strange, or does it? Maybe it doesn’t. It allows En Anwar a way out of his own political desert, it makes dead certain he won’t be wandering about for 40 years. The problem with Kingmakers, I gather, is the fact that if they themselves do not have solid footing, their dependence on their favoured’s largesse tends to be precarious. Imagine campaigning for everybody and discovering all of them to be sharks in disguise, unless, that is, he’s sure about his ability to appeal to the masses: harried ex-PM-designate and now demagogue. This will be very interesting to watch.

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We’ve got to observe the situation now very carefully.

Mr Huicheh’s got 2 articles from the BBC and China Daily over at his website, link over here. The two articles mentioned are as follows:-

The BBC
China Daily

I think we’ve got to keep the pressure on, and LKS and Ms Teresa Kok are maintaining it; let’s hope they don’t stop halfway. What I’m more concerned about is how all of this can be swept up in a storm of protests that focus on racial divides; God knows how easy it is for such an incident to fall into petty bickering about race and ethicity. It’s about fighting for justice and maintaining a position based solely on that criterion: justice.

Already, there are murmurs about ethnic dominance in the police force. Just today, I had a discussion with an Indian colleague, and he was incensed by the whole event. Not because the policewoman was Malay, but because police abuse is rampant in Malaysia today. He related an incident where one of his friends was an Indian policeman who would stop by Chinese restaurants and demand free beer/stout. This is just another case of abuse, and should clue us in to the obvious defects of the police force in general.

Head over to carboncopy’s post for some analysis. I’ve tried looking for the Criminal Procedures Act in my office and can’t find it (I’m bloody shocked). Will have to get my hands on it, though. Of course, powers are confered on the Police via Act 593 by the Executive Branch, but I’d like to examine the actual relationship between the Executive and the Police Force, if such a relationship is defined in the Act.

You get caught in the same haze. It’s so hollywood-movie, so very normal. I’ve been here before, and it seems these days I walk in circles. No pretensions of a superficial Return with a capital ‘R’, surely. Just jaundiced mummery reaching for some certainty in the everyday.

Something luthien said struck me as being completely true: “this is what this job can do to you. all your perspectives turn hayewire. but you know what the worst consequence of this job? overt self-importance. you think you’re invincible (quite honestly, you’re quite invincible to a certain extent), you think you rule.”

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What I dislike most is when bloggers get authoritarian with their posts. No matter, they have their own good reasons, I suppose, especially when you consider the larger contexts in which they operate. Jeff Ooi’s recent post about the use of technology over here(post1) sounds like an apologia of his previous post about bare-naked Chinese women in lockups, which you can find here (post2). In any case, it is a poorly thought-out defense, if at all. He notes that readers have not made the connection between the use of technology and empowering citizens to bring the government to task in his post about said naked lady.

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It’s late and my attempts at purging what refuse I had digested this evening hasn’t developed into a meaningful report. It’s all in pieces and I can’t make sense of it. That’s not a good thing, sir. Not making sense of madness is ok, but really, being the cause of that madness is quite another. I’m drifting, I don’t even know what I’m saying.

I had the shelling of my life this morning. It brought me back to my senses, and I wanted to throw punches. Throw punches. The last vestiges of decency cast aside for one, pleasurable smackdown. I was on the verge today, with him. But I took it out on a 3.30pm appointment instead. He sat down and I sat down and I dispensed with small talk.

I told him: “You’re over-charging”.

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The net’s abuzz with recent news of mms clips finding their way on the internet, clearly showing the abuse of a Chinese woman thought to be a Chinese national. The vid clip can be found on Malaysiakini’s website here. It shows the viewer the naked back of a Chinese woman commanded to perform “ear squats” like a kindergarten kid. From the viewpoint of that clip, it appears that the person giving the orders is a woman in dark blue uniform, though not specifically identifiable as a policewoman.

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With respect to political alternatives and manifestos, a copy of the same has been posted on the Keadilan website with reference to our discussion yesterday over here. The response from PKR is fantastic, and goes that much further to educating interested netizens about alternatives available to us.

Check it out and mull over the proposals. They are as concrete as is reasonable, with the promise of newer policy directions on the way.

I was quite surprised about what the PM said. The link to the Bernama article is here. PM Abdullah believes that “development policies like the New Economic Policy (NEP) remain relevant as long as the economic disparity between races exist in the country.” Now, this is all well and good, I suppose. A general statement like that could mean a variety of things, with nothing specific really said. A good opening, I’m sure. And then he says this:

He said the income gap between Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras remains wide where for every Ringgit earned by a Bumiputera, a non-Bumiputera earns RM1.80.

“The implementation of NEP cannot be seen as a racial issue,” he said in his written reply at the Dewan Rakyat sitting here, Wednesday.

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And the grand answer to that is: “I don’t know”. This afternoon while juggling several assignments, I began wondering about this while reminiscing about some heated arguments I’ve had with Singaporeans over the usefulness of an opposition party in parliament: what really is the use of an opposition party? You know the host of answers to these, which basically boil down to one or more of the following:-

1. As a check and balance to Big Brother
2. To present an alternative solution to issues
3. To represent minority interests (huh.. if at all)
4. To present a veneer of the democratic process…

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