— Donald Pinto The Malaysian Insider Feb 26, 2013
FEB 26 — How incredible can this be? The police treat some 100 armed militants with kid gloves but accuse a Filipino reporter with Al Jazeera’s English service of being a spy with the “Royal Sulu Sultanate Army”.
The media reported today Jamela Alindongan was accused several times of working with the self-styled army while being questioned by unidentified Special Branch officers.
Despite Alindongan showing them her employee ID, she was questioned for two-and-a-half hours, the longest among the three Al Jazeera crew detained in the sea off Tanjung Labian village, near the Lahad Datu standoff between Malaysian security forces and Sulu sultanate supporters, on February 20.
Can the police explain this? How do you treat one unarmed person this way but give almost-royal treatment to this rag-tag bunch of armed men.
At best, they are invaders, at worst just a bunch of pirates who have been treated too well too long.
This is embarrassing for Malaysians. We have a police force which can’t tell the difference between what is dangerous and what is harmless.
How much more do the police want to shame us with this farcical behaviour?
They can’t chase a group of men from Malaysian territory but they will play rough with a journalist.
We need a higher standard for our police force, not this farce of a police who can’t keep peace and security in every part of Malaysia.