Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai's order to police chiefs to make use of personnel from all departments within the force to overcome the shortage of manpower in combating crimes makes one wonder what proportion of the force is in special branch, internal security and public order.

From what we have observed since 1998, these people are more into the preservation of the present regime headed by the Umno-led Barisan Nasional. If like the Baathist party in Iraq, we can isolate these departments as falling inside that definition of 'preservation of the regime', then the real police force would be much less than the 83,000 figure being floated.

The question that begs asking is the ratio or the number of police in Malaysia dedicated to the task of 'regime preservation' as compared to those in other countries tasked to do a similar job. Maybe Iraq and Iran might be good examples or benchmarks to compare with. Or maybe even Cuba.

The next question that begs asking is, if indeed we are a democratic country, whatever that word is supposed to mean, do we require any force at all dedicated to the preservation of regime? Do we indeed have a mechanism that provides for the safe transition of regime if indeed one is required following a general election?

One should be reminded that the present force dedicated to preservation of regime has as its master, leaders from the Barisan Nasional and more specifically Umno. What happens when the charter given to these masters through the general elections is revoked by the same legal mechanism?