Arrest the blighters
APRIL 4 — If I had been peddling pornographic material in a public place, let alone organise a public viewing of such filth for the titillation of the nation’s select group of literati, in this case members of the formidable Fourth Estate, I would have been kicked in the groin, screamed at brusquely, handcuffed roughly and dragged through the streets of Kuala Lumpur before being shoved bodily, without ceremony, into a dank, evil-smelling dungeon.
All, naturally, for my own safety and protection. I happen to know something about the inside of police lock-ups, having inspected many as a member of the Royal Police Commission in 2004/5.
Moving away from the stink and filth of the lock-up, a question that is on every citizen’s lips is: What is the Inspector-General of Police waiting for? Surely, not for Christmas.
Is he just naturally slow to react to events? Always a careful, thoughtful policeman. Or, could it be that IGP Ismail Omar has been pondering whether to adopt the MACC supremo’s too-clever-by-half statement to the Teoh Beng Hock Royal Commission of Inquiry that it was not his job to interpret the law?
I am not asking the IGP to interpret the law. Thinking is generally not good for top people and that is why they are put there.
I am merely asking him, in the nicest possible way I know, to get off his bum, a good old English word, and take the blighters in as provided for by the law of the land.
His seeming preoccupation with ascertaining the identity of the “actor” appears to me to be a little misplaced at best and somewhat of a smoke screen for indecision at worst.
A crime has been committed, and for the love of God, do your duty without fear or favour. Ismail Omar worried me when he told the media on his appointment that he had been well-trained by his predecessor Musa Hassan. I thought to myself then what a great recommendation for the nation’s top policing job.
Who the actor is of course important, but the identification has no bearing on the immediate issue of arresting the organisers of the public viewing. First things first, my dear IGP.
Perhaps, he has some clever surprise action plan that must remain for now in the dark recesses of the Official Secrets Act. I really cannot say for the police do work in mysterious ways.
For example, the question of whether the DVD is doctored or not does not make it any less pornographic. Go for the substance, not the form. It is by any honest definition pornographic, and showing it in public is an offence.
The police somehow can always be relied upon to dredge up a million reasons for inaction instead of concentrating on finding the one reason for action within the law. This is another case of a missed opportunity to regain that elusive public confidence and trust in the force without which it will operate without public support.
Something to think about Tan Sri Ismail Omar, and while you are about it, the place of the rule of law is not on the backburner!
* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.
