If the ugly truth about Malaysia's government keeps getting out despite systematic suppression and spin by hordes of mainstream-media hacks, what gives Barisan Nasional the idea that its image can be saved by hiring a few extra flacks?

When I read in Nat Tan's blog that Fox Communications had been awarded a RM200,000 contract to restore the image of the Royal Malaysian Police Force (PDRM), my first thought was that it must be some kind of joke.

hishammuddin hussein home ministry 140409 talking But no, I quickly realised that the story was true, as it quoted Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein as admitting it in Parliament, and claiming the move was urgently needed "to fix the negative perception from the people and baseless criticism from the media against the force."

"Negative perception" may well be the understatement of the year, given that PDRM is notorious, and has been as long as I can recall, for its corruption, inefficiency, inaptitude and lawlessness.

And as for "baseless criticism", what a bunch of innocents, idiots and outright dupes Hishammuddin must take the rest of us for.

That the crime rate is inexorably rising is a matter of public record, even according to the BN government's own statistics. And suspicious deaths of 'suspects' in police custody keep occurring unabated, while the culprits continue to get away.

The latest such case I've noticed was the death of "drug suspect" Choong Soy Soy following his incarceration in the lock-up in Bercham, Perak. Nat Tan's blog quoted The Star as reporting that, as usual, police maintained there was "no foul play" involved.

The story went that "Ipoh OCPD Asst Comm Azisman Alias said his investigation officers have recorded statements from the inmates saying that Choong had indeed slipped and fallen in the toilet" on the morning of June 27.

Choong was conscious and able to walk after the fall, the tale continued. But later, when police noticed that he was bleeding from the nose, he was sent to a hospital where he fell into a coma and died two days later.

Azisman reportedly stated that the case was being investigated as "sudden death", and that a post-mortem report would be submitted to the police soon.

Remember Kugan's case?

Mention of a post-mortem report of course reminded me of the case of A Kugan, another suspect who died in custody quite recently, and whose cause of death Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin of Serdang Hospital conveniently certified as "fluid in the lungs."

a kugan murdered assaulted indian youth A second, family-requested post-mortem, however, by Dr Prashant N Samberkar of University Malaya Medical Centre, found that Kugan's death was due to organ failure resulting from tissue necrosis caused by a savage beating. A finding that certainly fits the visual evidence, to judge by the gruesome pictures of the deceased's corpse that most of us have witnessed on the net.

The attorney-general declared at the time that he considered this death "murder." But since then, following a confusion of claims and counter-claims as to the validity of the respective post-mortems, and allegedly illegal police seizure of blood and tissue samples need for toxicology testing, things appear to have gone rather quiet.

It seems to me and lots of other simple-minded souls that if there's something wrong with the police force, it's high time it was fixed. But maybe the rot's gone too deep to be remedied.

But in any event, I can't see the point in attempting to improve public perception of the cops by hiring an organisation with a somewhat proxy reputation of its own.

Fox Communications, let's face it, is widely seen as a coalition crony, having won, whether uncontested or, as Hishammuddin was quick to claim in this case, by "open quote", a massive amount of BN government business.

bukit gantang election day police fru team 070409 02 It'll take more than some foxy PR outfit, whatever it chooses to call itself, to sanitize the putrid image of PDRM.

But no matter. The domestic image of the police force is almost beside the point these days, considering the dreadful reputation that the BN government's getting the entire nation of Malaysia around the world.

Indonesia's embargo on sending domestic workers to Malaysia, the UN's downgrading of Suhakam due to Malaysia's dismal human rights record, and the US State Department's ranking of Malaysia among the worst of the worst for human trafficking have all been public relations disasters for BN.

And now we're hearing allegations that a Malaysian bank is involved in breaching international sanctions against the Kim Jong-Il regime by channelling payments to North Korea for arms it supplied to Burma.

The way things are going, the facts are speaking so eloquently against the BN government that there's no way Malaysia's image can be fixed by Fox or any other known brand of PR. Except, of course, if the PR in question happens to be Pakatan Rakyat.