SEPT 5 — This time, the police swung into action and arrested 16 at Dataran Merdeka. For getting together and holding candles.
Last week, they kept watch and hardly moved a muscle when 50 people protested noisily outside the Selangor state secretariat against the relocation of a Hindu temple. They didn’t even bat an eyelid when two men brought a bloody cow’s head to the protest and stomped on it. Spat on it.
Keeping the peace, Malaysian-style is arduous for the Royal Malaysian Police.
They don’t take action, and risk getting slammed by the opposition. They take action, and they get whacked by the opposition. “Heads you win, tails I lose” must be the thoughts going through the minds of the senior police officers in Bukit Aman.
But they have always taken action against those who gather with lit candles. Or those wearing black t-shirts. So tonight’s arrests were nothing new.
And being accused of bias is also nothing new for the men in blue. Yet the evidence shows it’s true.
Thus far, all those detained have been the opposition although Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein pointed out that his Barisan Nasional ally, MIC Youth, had some members detained in Penang’s Kampung Buah Pala demolition exercise.
But none of the protesters who brought the cow’s head have yet to be detained. Some of them turned up at this morning’s town hall meeting in Shah Alam and continued their boorish ways.
Double standards? The police say no, they are investigating and it is up to the Attorney-General to decide on prosecution under the Sedition Act for the racially provocative cow-head protest.
Yes, cows are sacred to Hinduism. But the police seem to have their own sacred cows, too.
They take action against those wearing black t-shirts, they take out court orders to stop assemblymen from, well, assembling, and they come down hard on those who bear candles and roses.
But they don’t raise a finger to those who stoke racial passions. Datuk Ahmad Ismail’s racial rant last year is a cold case now. And we are left wondering whether the cow-head protesters will outrun the long arm of the law.
The police can put all the speculation to rest who their real masters are by just being fair, being impartial.
Take action without heed of creed or colour or political stripes. Regain the respect and support of the people by enforcing the peace and in the fight against crime.
Otherwise, they remain a farce, not a force highly regarded by all and a symbol of integrity and professionalism.
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As long as these powers-that-be are still ruling (or ruining), double standards, two-faced, bullying incidents will never end...