by Tunku Abdul Aziz
15 September 2010

I squirmed. All of a sudden a wave of nausea of tsunami proportions swept over me as I munched my buttered toast while reading a news report in the NST (Sept. 9) that IGP Musa Hassan’s parting wish was that Ismail Omar, his deceptively docile successor, would “emulate him in bringing about changes to the force and lifting its integrity.”

My breakfast to which I had looked forward with great anticipation came to an abrupt end; it became quite unpalatable and totally indigestible. A more insincere and hypocritical load of rubbish would be difficult to imagine, especially coming as it did from the man who confessed, so I was reminded, at the Anwar Ibrahim show trial some years ago that he would not hesitate to tell a lie if ordered to do so by his superiors. We deserved, I suppose, to have Musa set loose amongst us, the unsuspecting long suffering public, as the country’s Inspector-General of Police because we have done nothing, or very little, to stop the general rot in our country.

For Musa, his promotion to the post of IGP was a well-deserved reward for his “turning” operations and for being economical with the truth. Musa was denounced as an unreliable witness in a Sabah law court, a euphemism, if there ever was one, for a hostile witness. In truth, we must not be too hard on the poor man because it is quite possible that “truth” was not in the lexicon of ethics as far as he was concerned.

I thought it odd, to say the least, that he who was literally shown the door had the gall to ask his successor to “emulate” him. Did he really believe that he was worthy of emulation? I should think it the height of arrogance for me, for example, if I were to suggest that anyone should emulate me. Why should they? People emulate you because there is something in you, or about you, that they admire. Emulation is not product money can buy, unlike bare faced flattery or lies which seem to get you everywhere.

It is, I suppose, the measure of the man’s limited grasp of life’s vicissitudes that he continued to harbour the delusion until the end, in spite of the open contempt and disdain shown by the general public during his stewardship of the PDRM, that he was about to make a triumphant exit under a decorated arch with flags and pennants fluttering in the breeze and trumpets blaring.

There is, of course, no accounting for one’s pattern of behaviour in response to particular circumstances. Musa would never in a thousand years admit that he had left a force that is hopelessly demoralised. Ismail Omar has inherited a broken down institution that needs strong, principled and visionary leadership. Ismail Omar’s will be a thankless job. He must quickly wipe out all the negative traces of the Musa years if confidence in the PDRM is to have a ghost of a chance of being restored.

The Government that spent millions to set up the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police in 2004 must take charge and have all the 125 recommendations implemented. Abdullah Badawi as prime minister not only, in the opinion of the overwhelming majority of Malaysians, slept on the job but also showed no inclination even in rare moments of wakefulness to deal effectively with Musa who, in rejecting the IPCMC, (Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission) declared that if the IPCMC was forced on the police, they would to a man revolt. It was a threat of the most virulent and seditious nature and yet Abdullah Badawi took it all lying down, no pun intended, as if the threat to revolt against an elected government, however the election was conducted, was a normal part of police practice and response in the circumstances.

This naturally led, not surprisingly, to aspersions being cast on Badawi’s integrity. There were suggestions doing the rounds that there was a series of complicated connections that bonded Abdullah Badawi and Musa Hassan. According to many, it was an uneasy close relationship based on mutual survival, bordering on the criminal.

The IPCMC is central to the process of transforming the police force into the police service in which the focus is on service in the public interest rather than concentrating solely on the Police Act. This is a vital mechanism for ensuring that members of the public are protected from police brutality and human rights abuse. On the other side of the coin, the police too will be protected against unfair allegations of illegal acts.

IPCMC if properly constituted will bring about a change in public/police relations which have broken down almost beyond repair. It is not often realised and appreciated that the police work under great pressure and are exposed to great danger, and tend to forget that they are no more than civilians in uniform sworn to protect life and property. They must operate within the law. The police, from experience in many developed countries, need to be protected against themselves and this is where a mechanism such as the IPCMC is vitally important for the development of fair and honourable relations between the police and members of the public.

The government must put in train without delay the implementation of the IPCMC to bring PDRM in line with universally proven best policing practice as part of its much touted governance reform programme. For once, do not let the tail wag the dog as Badawi did to the detriment of effective policing in a multi-racial environment.

(Member of the 2004 Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police)