One day during my tenure as MP for Bandar Kuching, I was pulled aside by the then deputy home minister in the Parliament lobby. He had a small favour to ask, he said. He asked me to name him three clean top cops in Sarawak.

I guessed that he had in mind the idea of promoting a top Sarawak policeman to the Bukit Aman headquarters. The rumour had been floating in the Sarawak grapevine for a while. I named him my list of the top three clean and efficient police officers. The candidate of his choice was not among them.

My readers' curiosity may immediately be piqued beyond endurance. Who were these police officers we were talking about? Unfortunately, I cannot divulge this information. A certain element of professional ethics is involved here. Police officers are all too human, and for better or for worse, policing is their lifelong career. Very often, discretion is the better part of valour.

You should not be surprised that the deputy minister consulted me in such a confidential manner. Opposition MPs can and should work together with government ministers on issues of common concern. It needs trust, goodwill, and a great deal of mutual respect. In fact, they should do more of this for the development of a healthy parliamentary democracy in Malaysia. Unfortunately, party politics in Malaysia has always been over-partisan.

There is another reason why the said minister asked for my opinion. He knew and I knew that an MP worth his salt would have kept his ears very close to the ground on all the going-on in his constituency and his state, especially on matter of cops and bad hats. The currency in this unique business is information. With information, you can deal and wheel, and amass political capital to further your work.

Like most wakil rakyat in Chinese urban constituencies, I had to maintain an office to "service" the electorates. (The term "service" always made me uncomfortable. Usually, one tends to associates "service" with cars and commercial transactions, rather than politics. But then, politics in Malaysia has become mechanical and commercialised.)

Information is crucial

Sometimes, the office would be packed like the waiting room of a popular medical practitioner. Meanwhile, the telephone would be ringing off the hook. Information poured in.

The information comes from the most unlikely source sometimes. One day, I received an appeal for help from the operator of an illegal massage parlour, of all people.

He told me there was this police officer with the rank of ASP who had been demanding money from him every month, in order for him to keep his illegal business open. As any member of the underworld will tell you, all they want to do is to cari makan like any other citizen. Demand of bribes from members of the civil service is always welcome, because it keeps the business going. The cost is simply passed along to the consumers.

In this case however, the police officers began to demand more money by the month. Eventually, he also brought friends to the illegal establishment, and helped themselves to beer and food, as well as the entertainment facilities in the premises. The desperate owner had no choice but to confide in his local MP.

I did not call a press conference to denounce the police. I knew the police force in Sarawak quite well, and it would be unfair to shame the whole force when one bad apple needed to be removed. So a confidential letter was sent to the Sarawak Police Commissioner, to inform him of this incident. A message was passed to me that the matter would be investigated. A few months later, I read in the local paper that the offending ASP had been charged in court.

The story does show that the people who know about police corruption the most are the criminal elements in the community. One Sarawak godfather once listed for me in confidence the senior policemen on the take. You could always spot the corrupt officer from outside, he said. The commanding officer (KP) in charge of the town or the district with the highest crime rate is always suspect. When he is transferred, the criminal groups will follow him to the place of his new posting, and the illegal activities will boom there.

The alternative economy of the underworld is huge, worth in the region of many millions. Those shady characters operating these illegal businesses may not have an MBA from Harvard, but they have a shrewd and ruthless business sense. They know which side of the bread is buttered.

Whenever a new senior police officer is posted to their district, or even to the state of Sarawak for that matter, they will make tentative offer of goodwill and gift through a middle man. If the offer is not rejected outright, then these underworld kingpins can detect a lobang to weasel into the favour of the new "Tuan".

Have to cari makan

In one case that I know of, this owner of a famous nightclub in town offered the new police boss the use of his fishing yacht, since he had heard that the new Tuan was an avid angler. After all, Sarawak has a long coastline with very rich fishing fields. The police boss accepted the offer, and soon, he was fishing for more than those that swim in the sea!

The gangland members did not like to entertain senior members of the force that much. He would complain to me, "You even have to pay the girl before she goes to entertain the boss and his friends. But what to do? Have to cari makan ." Of course, he would resist my entire attempt for him to bear witness, when I take it to the authorities. He had a good thing going, so why should he crack his own giant gold-gilded rice bowl.

As I observe as rationally and objectively as I can, there are many honest cops in our police force. If they work under a corrupt boss, then their life is a hell of ethical contradiction. Peer pressure for them to take bribes is tremendous. The force does work on the principle of group loyalty, and they do not want to be seen as traitors to their friends by blowing the whistle. On the other hand, corruption from the top does make their job impossible.

As one Special Branch inspector told me in private, the SB people are the cleanest in the force, because their job is to collect information only, and so they are not open to temptation. If you want to detect corruption in the police force, look for those branches with the greatest opportunity to demand bribe. The traffic police are a perfect example.

The police are the premier institution in our country. There is no denying their tremendous contribution to the security and stability of the nation. Their job, together with that of the security forces, is the only one around that requires them to put their life on the line.

Unfortunately, their pay is miserably low. A constable makes less than a foreign waiter in a coffee shop. There is not enough housing for low ranking policemen, and some have been forced to live in squatter areas. They are on duty 24/7, legally speaking, and yet, they do not enjoy overtime and such other benefits that employees in the private sector have come to take for granted.

For once, I support the proposal of the new IGP to review and raise the salary of the police force across the board. There are only 80,000 policemen in the country, and the government cannot pinch penny when it comes to matters of public safety and combating crimes. With higher pay, the police can then attract better recruits, and improve on their standards of professionalism. With higher pay, they may be able to resist better the temptation to take bribes.

Bukit Aman must step in

Right now, the public image of the police is at its lowest ebb in many decades. It has reached a critical stage. I doubt very much the people of all races on the ground believe that the police can police themselves. The setting up of an independent commission to receive and investigate complaints from the public about our police misdemeanour is an excellent idea.

Of course we expect the police officers to resist this attempt to invade into their exclusive turf. Secrecy is the source of police power after all. Perhaps their resistance can be diluted with a sweetened deal of higher pay packages and better benefits.

As for this continuing saga of Sarawak gangs unfolding on the media, the whole nation is watching. All I know is that without direct involvement from Bukit Aman, the problems will not be resolved in the long term.

Right at this moment, the Sarawak gangland bosses and his senior musclemen will be scurrying to all obscure corners in Malaysia outside of Sarawak. The heat is on, and they must get out of the kitchen. But without some radical reform to revive the reputation and credibility of the police force, the Sarawak gang luminaries, like their brothers in Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia, will be back soon with a vengeance!