Bring back the heroes

May 4, 2010⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

This article first appeared in The Malaysian Insider.

My mother used to scold me when I was young for watching too many cop shows on television. She didn’t understand why I wasted my time watching them and devoted less time on my studies.

The cop shows were exciting and taught me many of life’s lessons I would not have gathered at home.

Later, I figured that the main reason why I like watching cop shows was because it provided me with an infusion of real-world good values through the heroic characters on the shows.

Many in my generation would remember the series called “Serpico” , the story about a brave New York City cop who risked his career, life and limbs to expose rampant corruption in the local police force in the seventies.

His actions forced the New York City Mayor to reform the local police force.

Coincidentally, the effort to clean the police force was done internally and did not require the formation of a special anti corruption department like the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) here.

The reforms were executed by clearing the force of tainted officers and appointing fresh personnel with impeccable integrity.

There was no need to establish another layer of potentially corruptible bureaucracy like the MACC to investigate the police force.

Many of us would also remember the fictional character of Detective James “Popeye” Doyle who braved death every single day to expose the European and US drug trade. This, too, was in the 1970s.

Both these men preferred to use their wisdom to overcome obstacles and hated violence, especially in the use of firearms.

They were well respected and feared by their foes, and the public felt safer as a result. They were true heroes to the public.

Back to Malaysia, our policemen in the 1970s were like Frank Serpico and “Popeye” Doyle.

They went to work every day with the knowledge that they might not return home alive later in the evening. They had to contend with the threat of being assassinated by the communists and gangsters who bred fear in the public at that time.

The police force at that time was racially diverse and every officer, regardless of race, would risk his life in the line of duty. Their leaders were fearless and the courage of some dedicated officers ended with the assassination of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and a couple of state police chiefs.

They were our real life heroes and the police force gained the greatest respect from the public.

The late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, who was the prime minister then, decided to embark on radical change of the force even though there was no obvious need at that time.

He decided to rejuvenate the police force and provide for its leadership needs of the next generation.

Tun Abdul Razak had appointed a junior officer, the 35-year-old Haniff Omar, later Tun, as the Inspector-General of Police in 1974 to change the police force when his predecessor died in a hail of bullets

Tun Haniff was one of the few university graduates serving as officers in the force at that time.

Under Tun Haniff’s leadership as IGP, the communist threat was finally eliminated. He also went after the gangsters who were running riot and threatened national security at that time. His men’s efforts resulted in the capture of the infamous Botak Chin in 1976.

The present day police force is a pale shadow of its heroic predecessors. They are now perceived as an incompetent and easily corruptible.

They are less feared by the petty and small time criminals, who continue to roam the streets and commit opportunistic crimes.

The professionalism and experience of the police force has declined as the officers prefer to be behind their desks than on the streets connecting with the people at large.

Their professionalism has further declined with the increased intake of supporting police officers in response to the demands from the public for increased police presence on the street.

This has resulted in burgeoning numbers of a young generation of police officers who only applied to join the force as a last resort. Thus, the new recruits lack dedication and integrity, and look at their responsibility as just another job.

They prefer to spend most of their time setting up mindless roadblocks all over Kuala Lumpur while petty thieves roam the streets around them brazenly.

They are no longer fearless as their predecessors and fear death now.

The killing of 14-year-old Aminulrasyid Amzah has exposed the mindless drone that poses as the typical officer of the Royal Malaysian Police today.

I am suspicious on the quality of job training given to the new generation of police officers. I would expect them to be trained to exercise greater wisdom when faced with potential dangers at roadblocks which are under their control.

I would expect them to be trained to use firearms in limited circumstances, and not be trigger happy and discharge their guns without a clear threat on their lives.

The shooting of Aminulrasyid clearly demonstrates the failure of the training programme of the police force.

Fact is, I don’t expect the Police Internal Inquiry Board tasked to investigate the case to find any wrongdoing and punish the perpetrators. These outcomes will increase distrust among the public in the police force.

The public will now have to add the police force as another threat, in addition to the thieves and crooks, to contend with in their everyday lives.

The policemen the public used to look up to as heroes are today zeroes in their eyes.

Maybe Tun Razak’s radical moves to change the police force has run its course and needs a new direction.

It is ironic that the person who needs to make the politically-painful overhaul is his son Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

I have high hopes that he will make the changes. The burning question, however, is will he be able to find Serpico or “Popeye” Doyle or another Tun Haniff Omar among the leadership of the police force today?

But he has to. For the sake of the people, and the country.