Book review: Policing the Malaysian Police.

What I like about the NGOs in Malaysia is that they don't give a damn about anything when it comes to upholding human rights and justice. Read the book called Policing the Malaysian police' published by Malaysia's leading human rights organization called Suaram and you will know what I mean.

The recent spate of stories about the video footage of a naked Malaysia woman (at first mistaken as a Chinese national), performing squats in front of female police officer in Malaysia, supposedly to see if she had any drugs stashed in her privates, made headlines across Asia. Comparing this case to the cases mentioned in this book, this case is just a tip on the iceberg.

This book tells the horrifying truth (without the need to sensationalize it) of torture, brutality, corruption, discrimination, abuse of power by the Malaysian police, which the mainstream Malaysian media have decided to keep as skeletons in the closet.

The book contains a series of memorandums submitted by various NGOs to The Royal Commission on The Malaysian Police.

The Foreword of the book was written by Dato' K.C Vohrah, the commissioner from SUHAKAM (Malaysian Human Rights Commission), calling the Malaysian government to ratify The Convention against Torture, which has been subscribed by 125 countries.

Kua Kia Soong, the editor of this book as well as the then director of Suaram, questions why The Royal Commission on The Malaysian Police is only restricted to overseeing their operation and management, not about holding them accountable for cases od criminal conduct and abuses of authority.

He cites that there were 588 rape cases and 250 murder cases in the first five months of year 2005, which indicate that the Malaysian police failed to fulfill the five functions of the police, such as crime prevention, arrest, security, detection and maintaining public order, which are stated in The Police Act 1987.

The book is divided into five chapters, policing the Malaysian police in cases such as police shootings and death in custody, torture under the Internal Security Act (Memorandum submitted by the Abolish ISA Movement), police brutality at public assemblies (memorandum submitted by Suaram), corruption and abuse of the migrants (memorandum submitted by Tenaganita), not to mention discrimination against the poor and marginalized communities (memorandum submitted by Jerit). Last but not least, abuse of police powers (memorandum submitted by the Coalition of Malaysian NGOs) as the Conclusion of the book.

The book highlights the latest case of police shooting which caused the death of 22-year-old Nagandren A/L Bhoopalan, leaving behind a 20-year-old widow (who was 4 months pregnant when the incident took place) and 6 months old daughter. The shooting took place when the driver of the lorry didn't halt when ordered to do so. Nagandren, a passenger was shot dead instead.

According to the report, there are horrifying pictures which depict that all his finger nails were torn out, not to mention injury marks on his body and forehead. Victim's widow then made a police report, saying that her husband was captured alive, tortured before he was shot dead.

Of course, the most infamous case in this book has to be the case of Anwar Ibrahim, our former deputy prime minister, who was detained under the ISA on 20 Sept.1998. He was held incommunicado for 9 days and then brought to court with bruises and a black eye.

At the same, Dr. Munawar Ahmad Anees and Sukma Dermawan were charged and convicted under the Penal Code for ' unnatural sexual acts'. They both pleaded guilty after being intensively tortured. According to Dr. Munawar, he was stripped and forced to re-enact homosexual acts in front of police officers. That year, the world witnessed 50,000 Malaysians marching to the streets to protest against the government. Of course, the peaceful demonstration turned into riot when the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) of the police corps arrived; they attempted to disperse the demonstrators with teargas, water cannon laced with chemicals and batons. It was the biggest uprising ever took place in Malaysian history. This show of police force violated Article 10 of the Federal Constitution which read: "Freedom of speech, assembly and expression (b) All citizens have the right to assemble peacefully and without arms (c) All citizens have the right to form association."

Policing the Malaysian Police is an academic work that makes a great reference source. It also put forth a persuasive argument that state-sanctioned violence will never inspire peace and obedience. For more information on this book, see the NGO/ publisher's website at: www.suaram.net