COMMENT By now, a big stack of cash with four zeroes would have changed hands between a few foreigners and a police investigating officer.

In order to secure the release of a couple of their friends who have been arrested, the investigating officer has allegedly demanded the cash to be paid to him directly. The condition set by the police officer was simple - no involvement of any locals.

The foreigners had applied to study in beautiful Malaysia, but upon arrival in Malaysia, they realised that they had been conned by a local agent who preyed on the innocence of these young people and their less-educated parents.

(For the sake of understanding this particular case, youngsters from the more-educated families would end up elsewhere in the West, instead of Malaysia.)

Some families had to fork out thousands of dollars just to send their children overseas to obtain an education, and their children end up on the wrong side of the law.

The agent is currently holding the passports of these young students from an unspecified country kilometres away. When one of the students showed me his passport, it was obvious to me that the visa had been falsified, and my advice was to seek help from the embassy.

On further checks by a friend, the students’ names were never listed in the university offering the business degree, but being students, they have travelled this distance hoping to pursue a degree in business.

Wrong focus

Circumstances have been changed but there is a certain degree of truth in this story - and I am not surprised that this is happening on a daily basis, because I have personally encountered several occasions where foreigners were being harassed by the police for easy money.

In the end, volunteers like me get ourselves busy for nothing, spend our time and money to help these foreigners. We do this on humanitarian grounds, because apart from the borders that separate us, we are part of a global village - the people created in the image of God, whether black, white or yellow-skinned.

The "daylight robbery" that I see happening sometimes makes me boil within. I have complained to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low before this, but the response has been most disappointing.

At one point, I was told that "dragnets" have been set up, but my question is: Where are the fishes? If we continue to allow our country’s reputation to be destroyed by the bad cops, what will be left of Malaysia’s good name when we travel overseas and proudly tell others that we are Malaysians, coming from a country which once upon a time boasted it had the tallest towers in the world?

When I read that the inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar had promised that in 2016, the force will be carrying out more Internet policing , my question is: Why spend so much time and resources on such matters as the internet postings on social media, when he should be focusing on improving the integrity of the force?

There is no wonder that the article in Malaysiakini had attracted over 1,600 "shares" and 54 comments, and probably more by the time this article is published.

Unhappy encounters

It is not only the foreigners, but even locals can testify that they have had unhappy encounters with the police. In some cases, the "runners" appear to have more access to the police than ordinary citizens, which should not be the case.

In the example given above, I was told that the agent could walk in and out of the police station, without being investigated or arrested. As I do not know the full circumstances, I would not comment further, but in one particular case a couple of years ago, I had to scold a runner not to be a busybody.

My wife had a minor accident. The other party was reluctantly cooperating with us thinking that he could get away with it. When he saw the investigating officer, his first response was to identify himself as someone’s boss. Fair enough, we did not know the "meaning" behind the conversation.

But, what do you have to say when the workshop operator told me to make my own arrangement to pick up the investigation report myself for insurance claims? For them to pick it up, their runners would have to pay RM150 to the investigating office - and that had to come out of our own pocket!

I decided I would not pay any bribes. Sure enough, when I called the investigating officer to follow up on the report, he was "kind" enough to suggest that I should just leave the matter to the workshop to handle and I did not need to trouble myself.

After nearly two weeks, when I called up the sergeant concerned, the report was still not ready. After several follow-ups, one of the police officers passed the phone to a local Chinese man, who spoke to me in Cantonese.

After enquiring why the officer had passed my call to the gentleman, I was told that the sergeant had told him that I could not speak Bahasa Malaysia and he had transferred me to the man. After the line was passed back, the officer had a long tongue-lashing from me in perfect Bahasa Malaysia - and I had to even ask if he, being a Malay, understood simple Malay! That’s me, when the hot button is pressed.

Shocking! The Chinese gentleman on the phone was not even a member of the force. As far as I knew it, the office of the traffic division, had a sign that said: ‘Unauthorised personnel not allowed to enter’. Yet, when I waited at the traffic division, at least two local men, who were apparently working as runners, sitting down and chatting with the officers.

Meanwhile, because I refused to pay any amount of bribe, I was given the runaround, to the point that I decided to complain personally to the traffic chief of Kuala Lumpur. A senior officer was assigned to handle the complaint and I finally picked up the report from the Kuala Lumpur Traffic Headquarters, but the hassles were totally unnecessary.

Arrest the bad cops, strengthen the force

Is Khalid even aware of the rot within the police force all these years? If he is serious about the reputation of the Royal Malaysian Police, to preserve its integrity, I am sure he will be able to get to the bottom of it as a good top cop. He does not need to get the full story from me, as though he is unaware of the rot himself.

Why, despite several ‘campaigns’ to keep the force fit-and-trim, the success rate has been low? In my case, my obesity is due to hormonal therapy for cancer, but in the case of the police, is it a different kind of ‘C’ that is plaguing the force?

With the powers within his hands, the IGP can easily set up a large team of people to net the ‘bad cops’ within the force, but so far, how many ‘bad cops’ had been arrested by the police or handed over to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for further investigation on corruption?

Or, will Khalid as the IGP allow the bad boys within the force to damage the reputation of the police force as well as his own? He does not have to do very much, but just send his ‘integrity men’ on the road to check on the frequent police roadblocks by the boys-in-blue, whose main job is supposedly to fight physical crime. He can easily set up traps.

With the Chinese New Year round the corner and just a month before Hari Raya Aidilfitri, there will be more roadblocks. Some of these roadblocks make no sense at all. I once had to tell an OCPD that any criminals who suspected that there was a roadblock ahead would easily escape using alternative routes; instead, the people who were being hauled up were minor traffic offenders and foreigners.

Because the roadblocks were creating unnecessary traffic jams on the first day of Chinese New Year, when most people had left the city for their hometowns, the kind OCPD immediately instructed his men to move out of the area.

But, for Khalid, I think a police force that lacks discipline and rotting from within, is a greater threat to social justice, national security and the country’s reputation. That should be his main focus for 2016, instead of going after some young people who are understandably frustrated with what they see in this country.

As the more mature people in this society, we have to right the wrongs, so that the wrongs will correct themselves.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.