A few weeks ago, we had reason to express our disquiet that the Rela chief Zaidon Asmuni was indecently hasty in defending his men who were alleged to have been involved in inappropriate behaviour, (ie, criminal behaviour) during their raid on the homes of foreign workers.

During the last few days we see more reports in the media of Rela men for the wrong reasons such as robbing foreign workers.

The Rela chief is now strangely quiet; if pressed for a response he would probably trot out the usual excuse that a few 'bad apples' should not be reason to tarnish the image of the Peoples' Volunteer Corps as a whole.

True enough.

However, the problem is that the chief seems to be unable or unwilling to recognise 'bad apples' when they are pointed out to him.

Instead, he is more intent on trying to convince us that the apples are in fact very good. When that happens, it is time not just to pick out the bad apples, but to change the custodian of the apple barrel.