The spate of brutal gun-point murders and attempted assassinations in Malaysia is already denting the nation’s image and reputation.

At home, the public have lost their confidence in the police. That is a fact. No matter how much the police may argue otherwise or even if the home minister were to threaten those who publicly express such opinions, the truth is Malaysians do not trust the police as they used to during the heights of the Japanese Occupation, the Communist guerilla war, the Indonesian infiltration or even as recently as some 30 years ago.

Seriously, the police are suffering from a critical trust issue. Any amount of cosmetic public relations relationship-building exercises is not going to bring back the public’s trust in the Malaysian police force.

The day the top guns within the barracks realise this truth, that is the day when our men and women in blue who are still virtuous to their vocation can stand tall in the discerning and networked eyes of the public.

For as long as citizens have to pay through their noses to live in gated communities or pay monthly fees to have private security at their tamans; for as long as car parks and public streets remain prime crime areas; for as long as VVIPs get gunned down in broad daylight despite having CCTVs - we need to tell the police captains and the honorable home minister that the police image and the nation’s reputation will continue to plunge.

When foreign news wires and online media capture these high profiled killings - as in the cases of the still unresolved Mongolian Altantuya Shariibuu murder, the Arab-Malaysian Bank Iranian founder’s broad daylight assassination, and the MyWatch Malaysian chairperson’s attempted gun-point murder, you cannot deny the fact that the national reputation of the nation has suffered.

What then is the way forward for the police force?

For as long as the BN government continues to remain subservient to the unknown forces that militantly refuse to allow the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to be implemented, the police will only continue to be hammered by public opinion while the international media further downgrades our nation’s security and safety status.

The resistance by the government to the IPCMC only leads to a widely rooting public perception that the police have much to sweep under the carpet.

People are asking - how come a recommendation that comes from none other than the revered ‘royal’ commission of inquiry (RCI) is not being honored by the BN government? When the recommendation of a royal commission that was chaired by none other than a top judge, Mohamad Dzaiddin Abdullah, is dumped, it also casts serious aspersions on the judiciary, too.

Indeed the police and the judiciary have a serious credibility problem that teeters on a crisis point. And unfortunately, it is not the doing of the institutions of The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) or the judiciary.

The BN-led government of the day must take ownership and be accountable for the destroying of the image and reputation of the police and the judiciary. The prime minister needs to reckon, too, that the continuing and alarming gun-point assassinations are only further destroying the nation’s global reputation.

All patriotic citizens of Malaysia have a right and categorical duty to ask who should be held responsible for the plunging reputation of Malaysia.

Or shall we throw patriotism out of the window of our soul, practice the mind your own business (MYOB) mindset and just let the country be demoted to the leagues and ranks of rogue nations in the African continent?