Claims of "selective investigations" by the police and interference by way of "orders from the higher ups" caused a commotion between civil society activists and law enforcement officers yesterday.

This developed as both groups got into a spirited discussion at a forum organised by the organisation of former human rights commissioners, Proham, at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

Criticism of the police force took centre stage after Proham representative Dennison Jayasooria, in his opening remarks, used the term "blue wall of silence".

This term, coined by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police Force, had been cited as a major concern that needed to be addressed by the police in order to improve their image and effectiveness.

The term loosely refers to charges that members of the police force will always close ranks to protect their colleagues.

The "blue wall of silence" gained momentum in the discussion involving about 20 top police officers, civil society activists and legal experts after lawyer M Puravelan gave his version of what hindered police investigations, above and beyond funding and material concerns.

Puravelan ( right ) alluded to "a lack of finesse", the ability to "act with impunity", acquiesce to "the politically-motivated Executive" and the failure to abide with, let alone enforce, existing legal frameworks.

This broke the dam, causing the senior police officers present to go on a verbal offensive after Women's Aid Organisation director Ivy Josiah and PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan cited examples of police inaction and interference at the behest of the ruling government.

'Orders from higher ups'

"The police must improve in human rights but also in their loyalty, which should be to the rakyat, not just to one another (in the force) and to the ruling elite.

"We have experience with police reports... we are good at keeping records. We have reported many cases involving police officers and there was no action or feedback to us on any of the investigations," Josiah said.

Such selective action, she said, had resulted in the perception among the citizens that there was abuse of power by the police, leading their loss of confidence in the force.

Arutchelvan ( left ) chastised what he described as questionable and extra-legal police conduct, which he said were quickly and conveniently explained by the widely-used quote, "orders from higher ups".

He then went on to cite the experiences of his party members recently detained under questionable circumstances, allegedly for political purposes and not for any real offence, as one proof of this.

More than 50 PSM members were detained in recent months in the run-up to the Bersih 2.0 electoral reform rally outlawed by the BN government.

The police have remained adamant that the arrests were because of "waging war against the King" and "propagating communist ideology", while PSM is certain that the arrests were used to dissuade people from supporting the rally.

Such serious problems, Arutchelvan said, could not be addressed by way of superficial moves, such as coming up with anti-corruption badges to deal with corruption in the force, when the root causes of both corruption and executive interference were not addressed.

He insisted that the police must be independent, clean and free from bias to be truly respected by the people.

'We are human too'

Rising to the defence of the force, Kuala Lumpur CID chief Ku Chin Wah ( right ) reminded the participants that the purpose of the forum was not police bashing but to look for ways to improve police effectiveness in investigating and solving crimes.

"Those things like abuse of power are very political. We cannot deny those," Ku said. "But let us focus on what we can do to improve the areas that we can. We were supposed to talk about strengthening police investigations, let us do that."

Another senior officer, Supt Sharifah Hawariah launched into an impassioned speech in defence of honest cops maligned by the conduct of a few bad apples in the force.

"We do not deny (there are bad apples), but there are a lot of good officers (who are trying to do their job). We are human too. What about our human rights? We feel too. I am a woman and I work 24 hours. I have to leave my family for work. I am a wife, I am a mother too.

"As for my male colleagues, they have to leave home for weeks at a time, during investigations. They are family men too," said Sharifah, who then appealed to members of the public to give the police some space, consideration and proper resources to do their job, at least as far as solving crimes.

"You never ask us about our problems and limitations. You never ask us what we need. You only hit at us. Do you think we like to be hit? You should support us, work together with us and ask the government to give us what we need," Sharifah said.

'No malice intended'

Arutchelvan then explained that he never sought to malign honest police officers, that his concern was interference from the Executive that hindered the police in their investigations.

"Orders from above", he said, could well instruct police officers to do things other than what was procedurally proper and mandated by law.

"We support the police in their demands for funds and laboratories, it is only that we want guarantees of their independence," Arutchelvan added.

Speaking to Malaysiakini later, Josiah ( left ) elaborated that even if the police were to be given adequate funds and training, this would be of no use if they had the tendency to ignore "certain" cases, especially these involving police officers.

This, she stressed, was a matter of valid concern for improving police investigative effectiveness that she brought up, not as a random attempt to hit out at the police force.

Concerns over the independence of the force and allegations of police hushing up and smothering investigations into complaints against their fellow officers are among the grouses civil society continues to express, leading to the loss of confidence in the force among the citizens.

According to Jayasooria, the forum by Proham was conceived with the cooperation of the chief of police, to tackle the issue of how to make police more effective in solving crimes via increasing the quality of the police force as opposed to the quantity approach espoused by Idris Jala's Pemandu, which focusses on increasing visibility via the "omnipresence" concept.