500-odd protestors, including women and children, turned up last Sunday morning (28/5/06) near the KLCC, to demonstrate their feelings and views about the recent fuel hike and power hike. Similar demonstrations at the same venue on previous Sundays had been peaceful and incident-free. The participants last Sunday must have expected the same.
They were in for a rude shock.
Some 100 riot police were present and ready. At an early stage of the proceedings, and apparently not preceded by any incident of breach of peace, the police decided to break up the demonstration. Water canons were employed. Then, according to reports and eyewitness accounts, FRU personnel charged at some of the protestors, and brutally assaulted the unlucky ones who did not get away quickly enough. There are photographs that testify to the extent of the force used by the police, and the disastrous outcome it brought.
Parents tried to shield and protect their children. Children could not help but witness the violence practised upon their parents. The police, the very persons who are meant to be the people’s protectors, became, in the innocent eyes of a child who saw his father beaten up unnecessarily and for no good reason, “orang jahat”. Hearts and bones were broken. Some must have wondered which was more astonishing, the brutality itself or the apparent lack of compassion, remorse or shame on the part of those who had no qualms unleashing brute force on defenceless persons.
We must ask ourselves: is this the civilised society that we have built, and that Malaysians can be proud of? Is the unadulterated and incisive observation of an innocent child still insufficient to wake our nation to the desperate need for immediate change?
The police’s take on the events is, not surprisingly, rather different. They claim self-defence, apparently on the ground that some protestors had resisted arrest and “started kicking first”. So, it was said, the police kicked back and retaliated, all done in self-defence. They also say that minimum force was used.
These well-trained commandos in riot gears, fully prepared and equipped with shields, batons and rifles; claim self-defence against ordinary Malaysian men, women and children who were unarmed, unequipped, untrained and unprepared.
Faced with two sides to the story, who shall be the one to investigate and determine the truth of the matter, the truth that the rest of us would like to know? Surely it cannot be left to a committee comprising the protestors, for they are interested parties who have already given their version. Similarly, it cannot be left to the police themselves to carry out the investigation, again because they too are interested parties in the incident, and they too have already taken a position.
The answer is plain and obvious. We need an independent oversight body. We need the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).
If there was any reservation on the setting up of the IPCMC, Sunday’s episode would have removed the doubt, and provided yet another compelling reason why the IPCMC is absolutely essential.
Without implementing the IPCMC, all the scrutiny that the police has been subjected to in the past two years will go to waste, all the public outcry will come to naught, and all the glamorous talk about human rights and reform will be just cheap and meaningless chatter.
It is also high time for Malaysians to re-examine the language that our governmental authorities (including the police) have been speaking for a long time, namely the language of power and control. Force, and the use of brute force as a necessary tool of control, becomes an integral part of this oppressive language.
We have for such a long time allowed the wrong language to be spoken.
If government is to be truly by the people and for the people, the language that must be learned and spoken is the language of responsibility (rather than power) and management (rather than control).
Only when the proper language is spoken will minimum force be truly reserved for use as a tool of protection, instead of an instrument of oppression.
... written by Syed Ismail Syed Omar,
Wednesday, May 31 2006 01:09 pm
I agree the IPMC must be set up without further delay. Since the police force is an organization with tremendous powers, there must be a system to check the abuse of those powers. Otherwise, who will monitor the police force in enforcing thier powers over the people?
Bar Council should make a police report written by Charles Hector,
Thursday, June 01 2006 09:27 pm
If no one has made a police report against that FRU officer who is seen using the butt of tear-gas launcher, then maybe the Bar Council must step forward and make a police report - so that police investigations can start and the said officer is charged for assault (at the very least).
Sometimes taking action against individual police officers who do wrong has a greater effect in bringing about a reform in the attitude and behaviour of other police personnel.
This would be our contribution to the public - and we have the photograph to justify the making of such a report.
Without a report - the police can always say that there was no FIR so they did not commence an investigation.
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500-odd protestors, including women and children, turned up last Sunday morning (28/5/06) near the KLCC, to demonstrate their feelings and views about the recent fuel hike and power hike. Similar demonstrations at the same venue on previous Sundays had been peaceful and incident-free. The participants last Sunday must have expected the same.
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I agree the IPMC must be set up without further delay. Since the police force is an organization with tremendous powers, there must be a system to check the abuse of those powers. Otherwise, who will monitor the police force in enforcing thier powers over the people?