COMMENT | A whopping 200,000 people got through police roadblocks to balik kampung during Hari Raya. This was the shocking revelation by Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on May 30. He said they cited fake “emergencies” to get police permission letters or misused work permission letters to slip back to their hometowns.

In other words, there were 200,000 Neelofas. How could this happen? Didn’t the police realise something was fishy when so many people were suddenly claiming that their mothers, fathers, grandmas, grandpas, aunties, uncles, or whoever had fallen “sick” and required “urgent visits” from their relatives - during, oh what a coincidence, Hari Raya!

Were the police, who hear criminals giving a thousand excuses, so naive to believe all these sob stories? What about those “work permission letters”? Were the police not curious why people suddenly needed to do “work” in their hometowns? During Hari Raya when everything is shut down?

What Ismail Sabri is saying is that the police were either very negligent or stupid to allow themselves to be duped by the simplest tricks. But why would he admit that the already very unpopular government had failed - again - in its job...