I refer to the sad and moving letter under the heading [#1] Society prepare the crime for the criminal [/#] (March 15) by Sheep about the way some citizens of this country are being treated by the authorities.

Most Sarawakians on the other side of the South China Sea cannot obviously rely much on the mainstream media if they want to know exactly what happened on those fateful days at Off Jalan Kelang Lama in Kuala Lumpur. But they can certainly find out something closer to the truth from Internet websites and from foreign media publications.

A newspaper that takes official accounts at face value may actually be guilty of what one would call dereliction of duty: In the military this could only mean court-martial! Desertion from duty is indeed a very serious offence.

A newspaper has a dual role - to report the truth, no matter how hurtful it may be, and to be a watchdog of the citizens. That The Star and the New Straits Times could not even report exactly what happened right under their nose is, as Sheep says, very amazing and indeed amusing too! They could be excused of course if the killing fields were in Cambodia for they would not have been able to go and visit the scene, talk to the survivors and carry independent accounts.

But I would not blame the mainstream media. After all, given the background of their ownership and the political inclinations, they cannot be expected to say or write something that would indeed put some government leaders in poor light.

I read of a more reliable account of the mayhem in Kampung Lindungan in the Singapore Straits Times and only then did I know it involved Malays and Indians. I can understand why the government would not want to say the clashes are racial in nature. But if it is not and if Sheep's account is not disputed, why did the police personnel do nothing when an Indian was being attacked and why did they try to prevent others from coming to the aid of that man? Is this not racial in nature?

Just don't blame people if they start talking or shall I say rumour mongering? They do this either out of anger or frustration because of what they had seen or heard and their perception of the lack of action by the police to stop the mayhem in time before the situation deteriorated.

Now instead of going after these so-called rumour mongers, the Selangor police chief should carry out an investigation, find out why the police personnel on the scene at the time did nothing to stop the killing (as reported in the international media and witnessed by a lot of people on the scene at the time), and charge the police personnel in court for something worse than dereliction of duty.

Obviously the credibility of a lot of people is at stake. As a Malaysian I am concerned at the way the police act when there occur racial disturbances. I can understand how the Works Minister and MIC leader S Samy Vellu feels.

The fact that he paid personally for the funeral expenses of one of the Indian victims goes to show his personal feelings in the matter. He is close to the prime minister and the deputy prime minister and surely he can do something to put things right once and for all. Or is he too concerned about his own position to worry about it?

Our top leaders in this country, whatever their faults may be, are not racists. They are human beings, they are Malaysians and they do not want trouble. Trouble does not benefit anyone in the long run. Perhaps our leaders should not utter anything that could make things even more serious.

And the police should not just act against opposition leaders or the so-called anti-government media; act also against government leaders who have uttered seditious comments, and this must apply even to the top leaders of this country.

Then again, perhaps one cannot expect them to do all that, for reasons that need not be said at all.