vox populi small thumbnail Kalui64: Congratulations, PDRM for putting Malaysia on the sexist map. Foreign newspaper headlines: Penang police brand women ( Sydney Morning Herald ); Malaysian police 'cattle-branding women' ( Adelaide Now ); Police branded women seized in raid ( Belfast Telegraph ). Similar reports appeared all over the world: New Zealand Herald , Channel News Asia , Singapore, Newsday (NYC), Salt Lake City, Utah, Sacramento Bee , Monterey County Herald , Phuket Wan Tourism News , Thailand ... etc. You have achieved more than Tourism Malaysia has in putting Penang on the map, at very little cost!

2CTS WORTH: I can only surmise that the police force is a legalised gangster community void of sensitivity, like animals. This cruel treatment meted to the detainees in chains and branded like animals illustrate that judgment had already been made, hence the inhumane treatment.

The gall of the senseless Penang police chief Ayub Yaakob to say investigations will be made on this glaring disregard for human rights shows the grossness of his uncouth and arrogant nature. And the big joke is, the police are investigating themselves! A typical style of their political masters.

Anonymous: By branding these women, the Penang police have also branded Malaysia as a Third World country that does not respect human rights.

Fairness for all: Firstly, the police should act against their pimps and not just the girls. Why are so many escort agencies allowed to carry on this trade of bringing in women from China and Vietnam, and nothing is being done? Instead you target the poor girls and brand them. The police do not dare act against the pimp as they are being paid by them, so they pretend that they are doing their job by going after the girls.

Righteous: Police action means no action. Police promise means an eternity of non-fulfilment. It's all hot air and hogwash. With marks on them, you mean they cannot escape? How can they escape, with Polis Raja Di Malaysia?

Cala: We are aware that it was Ayub who was the first to stand up and argued for Bukit Aman police in the disfiguring of the arrested girls on the head and on the chests. How then can the IGP Ismail Omar expect Ayub to conduct a police internal inquiry as to who had broken the rules? Is it a case of asking the thief to catch another thief? The least we expect from the IGP is to ask another state police chief to do the job.

Alan Goh: Ayub, as CPO of Penang, you don't have to wait for the IGP's directive to launch an investigation. That is the trouble with our leaders - everything needs to be told when the buck should stop at the CPO level. If marking needs to be done for identification purposes, it should cover both sexes, that is, males and females. Put yourselves in their shoes and just imagine how humiliating it is to be marked on the forehead. Sadly, looking at PDRM's past actions, records and behaviour, the IGP needs to whip his boys into shape.

Malaysian Indians have it worst

Keturunan Malaysia: Are the Indians not God's creations, too, or are they Hell-spawned creatures? Why is the government treating them like rubbish and extending outright citizenships to Indonesian and Filipino illegals?

Indians, I pray and hope that your day of reckoning will come sooner rather than later.

On your toes: MIC, Hindraf and Makkal Sakthi say they are still working on it, don't worry. MIC says we must work within the government to get the scum. Hindraf says we must demonstrate more. Makkal Sakthi saw the opportunity to get some allocations from BN.

Baiyuensheng: How could 450,000 Indians be stateless?! What's wrong with this country?

Tholu: How did so many of the Indians born in Malaysia end up without having a birth certificate? Whose fault is it? I will squarely put it on the parents, especially the fathers. If you bother to probe a bit deeper into the background of the fathers, you will come to know that more often than not they are drunkards, irresponsible and are only concerned about their happiness and pleasure. The children they gave birth to were mere accidents in the process of satisfying their carnal urge. No love or care is given to the children.

As much as I pity the Indians, I hate useless good-for-nothing parents. How is it that foreign menial workers like Bangladeshis and Indonesians can eke a comfortable living with some of them owning businesses?

Cathrine: Voting Pakatan Rakyat is not going to resolve the issues. This is the point Hindraf and HRP are driving at. Most people on the ground realise this because they are politically aware. Pakatan leaders have not committed to any concrete changes apart from saying, ‘Well, vote for us and we will solve your problems.'

I am one of those who support Pakatan but why aren't Anwar Ibrahim, Abdul Hadi Awang and Lim Kit Siang committed to any programmes to resolve the issues? No point saying we have not captured Putrajaya, yet. All Indians want is a concrete plan and commitment to implement those programmes if Pakatan is elected to Putrajaya. Is this too difficult?