MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

The police has overstepped its limits

IF THE MAYOR HAS been defamed in a book, he should have taken the author to court. Instead, the police showed they could do as they liked, decided that defamining the mayor was a threat to national security, began investigating two senior City Hall officials and the author, and jailed them for about a week - like common criminals. They should have done so after the mayor has won his action in court, if he dared take it. Even then, the police acting, as they have done, is illegal. They were illegal in arresting the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and the criminal case against him, for which he spent time in jail, is illegal. The then Inspector General of Police, no less, have apologised for beating him up and so have several people. Unless of course the government tells us clearly, and passes the required legislation, that it is an offence to defame either politicians or civil servants. That law would create problems on the ground, where it would be resisted, rightly. But because of the government in full control, with no opposition in sight, it do as it liked. The mayor is attacked because although he is a favoured civil servant, he should not have been appointed. The government is trying to cut dissent in the civil service, and uses the police to stop it. The book, in Malay, which upset the government writes of the newly appointed mayor's sexual affairs. He has not denied the allegations. Nor has he filed a defamation suit against the author of the book. So, who authorised the police to act as it did? Pak Lah must act against these man who lodged the police report, and the police for having harassed the author and the two senior City Hall officers. Since he is responsible for what happens in the government, he must take responsibility. He cannot act as his predecessor, Tun Mahathir, by repeating the allegations after he refuses to prove the allegations in the Anwar Ibrahim trials. He is now facing a defamation action by Dato' Seri Anwar for repeating the sodomy allegation after he has been cleared by the courts. But has he been investigated by the police? Why not? Is he lower in rank than the mayor of City Hall? Pak Lah cannot act as he pleases. He should have had the police investigate the former prime minister. What has not the police treated him as he treated the author and the senior City Hall officials?

Do not authors have the freedom to write on what they liked? And pay the penalty if they defamed anyone in the book or article if that person took him to court. Otherwise, all biographies would be hagiographies. It already is. Writers are not interested in this genre anymore. Many writers write hagiographies, especially during the UMNO general assemly. A deputy prime minister got damages for defamation, buy the author afterwards wrote a book praising him. He was paid both times, the earlier book by one who hated the deputy prime minister, the latter by the deputy prime minister. The author was untouched although his allegations against the deputy prime minister was worse than the mayor. But whether the book is paid for or not, the author is responsibe for what it contains. If there is defamation in the book, he would be sued, not be subject to police investigations, arrests, and prison terms. The police could be taken to court for what it had done, irrespective of whether the mayor takes defamation action against the author and the two senior City Hall officials. As of now, the average man in the street will believe the author, and praise the senior City Hall officials for not wanting a mayor whose sex life is out of the ordinary. It is probably too late for him to deny the allegations. He has talked to the press, but it is of his future plans for Kuala Lumpur. He behaves as if everything is normal. But it is not. It should be. But it is not in Malaysia, where it was used for having a man arrested so that he would not be prime minister. The normal rules do no apply. Anyone in high office has his private life in public life, whether he likes it or not. Those who do not like the man taking the post will go against him. As has happened to the mayor.

We have seen country descend into a police state. It is no use stating in parliament it is not when police investigate authors and senior officials because a senior civil servant believes he is defamed in a book, and got about their daily duties breaking every rule in the book. It is not the police's duty to find out if the author had been paid by others (the author has said in an interview he has not, although one man bought 300 copies from the publisher) to write the book. If it is a crime for the author to be paid by others, then almost no book would be published. Many books published these days are subsidised, usually paying the author and towards publishing the book. Why are not these authors harassed by the police? A book on the late Tun Razak was hagiographed, but the author was not harassed by the police and the printing of it fully subsidised. If payment by third parties is an offense, then why has not the police taken action against these authors? I know of one business man who would gladly pay if some author would write what he wants the public to know.

But this descent into a police and autocratic state by an elected government is deliberate. The opposition such as it is does not take the government to task. The newspapers do not do its job. The non- UMNO members of the cabinet and government do not complain because they fear loss of their jobs. They think they can lull their communities. But they have been 50 years (MCA and MIC), and 30 years, for the others, in the government, and have got used to ignoring their communities. The civil servants do as they like. The public is told to shut up. But it is not prepared to. Let us take the Deeparaya holidays. The public is put to great inconvenience at the bus stations. Corruption is rampant. But the officials do not act on it. For going to KLIA, one is directed to toll paying roads from the toll paying highway, when there is a non-toll paying alternative. The man in the street going on the highway is lost, with inadequate signs, that it is a wonder he gets to where he wants, particularly if involves several highways. Often the journey along the tolled highway is cheaper than the toll payments. A man must have in his pocket more money everyday than he earns before he gets on the highway. The aim of the highway is for the benefit of the concessionaire, not the public.

If the National Front government is not careful, it can lose out when a general election is held. The young of the three races, born in Malaysia and not supporting the National Front government as their fathers did, are dismissive of Malaysia in the world. They are more interested in the bread-and-butter issues, which the government would rather hand over to a business man. Water in Selangor was privatised, and the water bills went up more than the residents could pay. The concessionaire lost his licence, and one man found himself paying more $70 he was billed before the new firm took over and 90 per cent of that. The previous concessionaire had written its programme such that bills were automatically inflated. And the government did nothing. As it would. The concessionaries, both former and present, were private companies formed by their members!

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com