Are we living in a police state? Who's protecting who?

An abridged version appears in malaysiakini as Edging towards a possible police/military state

The past few years have seen an intensifying presence of police around the country, particularly around our capital city, Kuala Lumpur.

This has become even more rampant of late, such that one begins to wonder if their ubiquitous presence is for the sake of the citizens or to protect the interests of certain politician-personalities. It boggles the mind as to who's protecting who? See Gridlock in KL as police mount roadblocks

Sadly, this increased police presence is not in vicinities of need, i.e. at the many known hotspots to discourage criminals from playing a cat and mouse game with law enforcement officers, and their escalating petty but violent crimes.

Snatch thieves are blatantly targetting hapless and helpless ladies and even arms-full men, with sometimes very awful consequences. Cars are hijacked in bright daylight, outside one's homes even! Not all these are benign, and many fall prey to senseless gratuitous violence. A few victims have died, and many others have suffered grievous injuries including paralysis. Handbags of pedestrians have to be clutched so tightly as if every passerby is a potential snatch thief! Yet, where are the police when you most desperately need their presence and assistance?

Few can truly feel safe even when walking around the vicinity of their own home or neighbourhood, so much so, that residents have banded together to employ their own security detail to protect their homes.

Gated communities and closed housing estates are now de rigeuer. Perhaps it would not be too long now, before we approach the level of armed auxiliary soldiers to guard almost all middle class homes, such as in Manila, Philippines! It certainly makes a mockery of our safe neighbourhood concept, even more ironic for what has previously been touted as a peaceful country such as ours.

It appears that no one is safe. Recently one of my expatriate patients, a South American woman was molested as she went on her morning walk with a female friend! It appeared that a couple of full-helmeted men astride a motorbike circled around them a couple of times before attacking her. The women managed to escape by running towards a group of construction workers nearby. However, the two molesters had the gall and audacity to come around again to taunt them despite the presence of other people!

You can imagine the emotional and psychological trauma suffered by these women! They were even too afraid to report to the police because sadly, they had residual fears of the police and military from their own country, which had for long decades been under military rule...

There, the police and the military are not recognised by most of the citizens as respected law enforcers--rather they are feared as intimidating thugs associated with corrupt right-wing dictatorships. Tens of thousands of suspected anti-government citizens had 'disappeared' during the previous military regimes of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Are we in danger of approaching such a state of despair? As Malaysians, we must pray and hope not, but we must also jealously guard against the soaring use of rule by law to execute and prosecute selective interpretations of the nation's statutes in a biased discriminatory manner!

Example: an accuser of sexual deviancy ('liwat") is police-protected, whereas the accused is investigated, harassed and possibly to be charged soon; when such consensual mutual acts (even if true) are illegal for both. Skeptics now openly challenge the notion that justice is seen to be done, the way this issue is being conducted by our law enforcement agencies--See Sodomy claim: Let's see the hard evidence. See also Cops explore options as Anwar defies order.

The more enlightened and modern amongst us would always feel piqued that such intimate bedroom affairs are the business of anyone but themselves. Worst of all, it appears conveniently timely, to resurrect the antiquated laws of homosexuality, just when the country's political stakes are reaching its most stridently plangent peak...

If history is meant to be learnt, then clearly it has not succeeded in Malaysia, with our political mavericks. Ten years ago, such a political ploy failed miserably to convince not just the judiciary but the rakyat as well, that this tawdry accusation was anything but political assassination. True, the fallout from the easier charge of abuse of power was made to stick, to ensure that the challenger was incarcerated and left in political wilderness for an appropriate tenure--6 long years...

Thus, for the current crisis of faith, many Malaysians, and I dare say not just bloggers, are extremely skeptical that this is simply a serendipitous echo brought upon by a "serial sexually irrepressible deviant", and not a Machiavellian game of political brinkmanship.

One can only hope that common sense will prevail, and that those involved will not push many exasperated Malaysians to the limits of tolerance, although recent unfolding events seem to be imply that the final denouement is still not yet played out.

Why Malaysians are asking, are such public displays of police-military collaboration and joint exercises taking place at this time? Why are even such joint exercises at public security control even contemplated? See Malaysiakini's Parliament turns into a 'war zone'

Why indeed, if these are not in preparation for something more sinister? Could there be some devious plans being hatched, as preparation for some potential worst case scenarios?

What indeed lies underneath such a camouflage of shadow play, so much a part of political 'talkshop' in Malaysia. Because there is so much that cannot be articulated out loud, whispering campaigns, juicy gossips and sexual innuendoes, abound via sms, emails, blogs and even youtube amateur videos! Our wayang kulit appears to be more than its surreal shadows, and often it is embodied with some elements of disconnected 'truths' rather than total fiction...

Hence, the worrisome rumours of emergency rule are being bandied about in the blogosphere. Clearly in this instance, I hope that this is all purely shadow play... Perhaps, the chief dalang master is trying to warn us to restrain ourselves. Perhaps we are not too subtly being forewarned not to test the limits and patience of the authorities, perhaps...

Thus, people are rightfully worried. Of course, we are concerned and do not hanker for such a terrible catastrophe to happen. But the signs do not augur well for peaceful resolution of the intense politicking that has erupted thus far.

Political instability has engulfed the nation, whether we like it or not. Our leadership seems to have been floundering about after the unprecedented loss of its two-third's majority to rule without challenge. Crisis after crisis appears to be dogging the leadership, right from the moment of the 5-state loss on March 8th, to the pathetically announced subsidy withdrawal and unprecedented sharp fuel price hike.

The 'shock doctrine' was perhaps planned by the economically-savvy 'Ox-bridge' boys of the PM's coterie of preferred advisers. Perhaps this was the handiwork of some Chicago-trained Friedman-indoctrinated economists who have for a full generation believed that a severe shock is better tolerated that several smaller ones.

This is predicated by the teaching that free enterprise can be imploded into a system only when some catastrophic crisis has been thrust into a suddenly bewildered and harassed populace, thereby eliciting an expected, confused, disoriented response, which can then be quickly and aggressively exploited for further shocks to totally revamp a political or economic system. Sometimes, this is so drastic that an immutable revolution has taken place, before it is finally recognised, and by then it is just too late to reverse!

Using the military putsch to achieve this objective, has already many precedents. Political scientist and author, Naomi Klein argues that it started with the Chilean experiment of General Pinochet when he and his army toppled the then elected but socialist president Allende, with the connivance of the United States' CIA.

Once any military dictatorship takes hold, it can continue with gross authoritarian excesses and abuse for decades... Chile, then Argentina, Uruguay in South America; in Asia, we have hermetically sealed autocratic Myanmar, the occasional sporadic coups in Thailand, Philippines; and the previous Indonesian era under General-President Suharto...

Naomi Klein's recent book The Shock Doctrine (The Rise of Disaster Capitalism), makes engrossing but enlightening reading--we must not let this take place in Malaysia.

Azly Rahman's timely discourse on this militarisation danger in Malaysiakini's column is also well-worth contemplating (With whom will the army stroll?). He has passionately averred that the army and the police must respect their roles and not exceed their constitutional limits: "Soldiers fight to protect external enemies of the people, not to protect corrupt politicians against their own people... The police are supposed to be maintaining justice in a world of irrationalities and unjust behaviour. The police need no extra protection if they are true to their conscience and always available and reliable to protect the citizens, even against elected representatives who abuse power."

As concerned citizens, we urge our more enlightened leaders to recognise that we are edging towards a possible police and/or military state. That it would be a folly to accede to this for political expediency.

Some of our embattled leaders are already rationalising that the increased police presence and blockades are to protect public peace and deny illegal demonstrations from disrupting businesses, etc. They argue defensively that the inconvenience caused cannot be helped because they, the police are just simply doing their job. If only we can be more understanding, perhaps we can believe this explanation more...

But Pak Lah seems not to understand still, that we the rakyat do have a crisis of faith in the authorities! Many among the public find that the police, the judiciary, the government agencies, and whichever politicians who try to explicate their take on law and order, shallow and without the moral authority to do so anymore--in short, we are painfully disbelieving of whatever they say.

We are suspicious if they can be trusted again to do the right thing or whether they are simply pandering minions to the demands of their political masters, or worse for other purposes and self-gratification.

Yes, it is unfair, but our institutions have lost so much of their credibility, that many people are simply questioning the veracity of everything and anything!

Yes, the perception war appears to have been lost, and the rakyat seems no longer willing to tolerate further displays of dissembling from these people anymore...

So whither can we go forward? Let's get back on track.

Our police, our institutions must find its way back to regain the people's faith, by being scrupulously fair, neutral and transparent in all its proceedings henceforth.

Politics must be left by the wayside in every police interaction with the public and/or partisan politicians. Only then can some semblance of justice be seen to be taking place, without fear or favour...

Only then, can perhaps the rakyat's perception be swayed to a more even keel of belief in our beleaguered and discredited institutions...

Do we dare to be hopeful?

(Photos above are from sin chew jit poh and malaysiakini websites)