Police in Malaysia

I have been intending to write about what happened to Aminulrasyid Amzah the 15 years old boy shot dead by Malaysian Police over an obviously joyride gone wrong.

I have been questioning the modus operandi of Malaysia Police force for sometimes. Whenever I read or heard of a news where policemen have shot dead purported criminals, I can't help to notice that in many of these reports, the police often report that they found a number of parangs (machete) and 1 or 2 guns in the possessions of the deceases, but made no mentioning of whether shots were ever being fired by the purported criminals. In many of these cases, the guns and parangs were always found inside the car or found in the boot of the car.

I have always been suspicious of such reports as I have read and heard many times in the news that police shooting dead criminals but it has been a long time since I last heard of Malaysia Policemen being shot at. The Home Minister statement that it's unfair for the public to be criticizing the police for the shooting of the 15 years old teenager, whereas we were not concerned when the police were shot. But do check back the news, when did the last time a police men got shot in Malaysia?

I checked the figure here and here. The numbers said that over the past 20 years, Malaysian police had shot dead 579 suspected criminals. Meanwhile there were 19 police officers shot dead in the same period. I am not saying that there should be more police men killed in the line of duty. What I am saying is that the numbers do tell a story, especially a tell tale sign of the modus operandi of our Police force.

Now, that there are more witnesses coming out to collaborate the testimony of the second witness (the other 15 years old boy in the car chase). The lies of the Police that the boys had tried to ram the police with their car is falling apart. The credibility of the police, or whatever is left of it, takes another serious blow.

Then I read this in Malaysiakini. First off, I have not expected the "special panel" formed to be any more "special" than a royal commission formed before. Where I still vividly remembered how the police had threaten to let the crime rate rise, if the government proceeded with the forming of the IPCMC as per recommended by that Royal Commission. If a Royal Commission could not get the police to straighten up, what could we expect from a so called "special panel" that has no jurisdiction and any legal standing based on established law?

Then I found this video. The 12 years old teenagers in the video were lucky that they were not in Malaysia. Else, we'd have another 12 years old "criminal" shot dead.

Another question in my mind is if we, as a society, should be held responsible for Aminul's death. I think as a whole, we are indeed partly responsible. We did nothing to rein in the police over the many extra-judiciary killings of "suspected criminals". Many of these shootings were not properly investigated because there were not enough public outrage.

Finally, we might have a catalyst case to push for change but the government of the day is smart and cunning. The formation of such a "special panel" shown their ingenuity to come up with ideas to divert the public attention. Nevermind that such a panel is powerless to do anything to the police force. I do not even expect the panel would be able to get any police officer charged for any crime.

By any international standard, the police men in the scene should all be immediately suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. But alas, they were only reassigned to desk duty. The defensive attitude of the Home Minister, the Inspector General of Police, and the Selangor Police Chief also shown that the police and the government is not interested at all in finding whether the shooting was justifiable or not. Their attitudes shown that they just want this to be gotten over with and the sooner the public forget about this the better.