Many events and incidents in the last four years have suggested that it is the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) which present the greatest obstacle to the practices of universal human rights.

For years, the police have been enjoying tremendous and unchallengeable powers. In the process, an arrogant attitude to change has been entrenched. They think they can do whatever they fancy, including detaining people without power, forbidding citizens to speak, using unreasonable force to break up peaceful gatherings of the people, firing tear gas into unarmed and peaceful crowds, disrespecting places of worship, torturing ISA detainees, engaging in petty corruption, issuing wrong traffic summons and challenging the law of obliging it to serve traffic summons, etc.

In short, PDRM has become lawless itself because the various powers given to it are so great. It is time Suhakam and other human rights bodies, domestic as well as international, conduct researches on the exact anti-human rights powers the police have, and the abuses over the years.

It is also time for Suhakam, Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) to form a joint committee to investigate the income and wealth of the top cops, including Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai and former IGPs, like Rahim Noor and Haniff Omar.

Alternatively, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad should order all top police personnel to declare their income and wealth publicly to show that they are clean and incorruptible. Otherwise, the police as an institution will have no more credibility and moral legitimacy in the eyes of the rakyat and the world.

Meanwhile, the government should immediately conduct a study with the objective of reviewing the salaries and allowances of ordinary police men and women so that they are not oppressed by relative poverty which breeds frustration, cynicism, social jealousy and other negative sentiments against other human beings.