Dev Anand Pillai have been wondering what else can a community, who are an important minority in this country, do except to revolt when the whole system is based on patronage and class divisions in Malaysia?
What else can a community do when they are constantly stereotyped by the authorities and the media to have criminal tendencies?
What else can a community do when they are arrested for suspicion of involvement in criminal activities but instead end up in a body bag without ever being charged? All these seem to be the predicaments of Indian Malaysians, which have led to a sad state of affairs after 52 years of independence.
The system of divide and rule and class patronage has created a mentality in the police force and the authorities in general that Indian Malaysians are the down-trodden class which are only good at arguing and fighting and hence associated with acts which could involve violence.
This mentality is very present and evident in the way the authorities discharge their duties when it comes to engaging Indian Malaysians. The question of continuous "begging" or asking the government in a very scuttle or mild way using political patronage connections should not arise as Indian Malaysians are citizens of this country and have all the right to be treated equally.
If an application is made and the applicant meets all the pre-conditions and criteria, then the applicant should be allowed his request without the need to further inquire into his ethnicity.
But the continuous insistence on ethnicity at every level of bureaucracy in Malaysia has entrenched a feudalistic mentality in the system of governance in the country which tends to only favour the well-connected. This has caused a ‘boiling lid’ effect which is what the country is experiencing now.
If it were not for the Indian Malaysians who had heeded to the call of Hindraf and revolted against the government in 2007, the rest of Malaysia would not have woken up from their long slumber and caused the hard hitting tsunami on the ruling BN coalition.
It can be seen very evidently that when Indian suspects are hauled up by the police, they are easy victims of the feudalistic mentality which has been indoctrinated into the police force.
Fundamental rights under the constitution are all nothing but worthless writings on paper which the police force does not bother with.
Fundamental liberties like the right to a phone call and legal representation of your choice is denied with ease and when brought up before the courts, we have a judiciary that does not insist that the constitution is supreme and in turn reprimand the delinquent police force for its ineptness.
The ethnic Indians have been on the receiving end way before the Hindraf revolution took place but this slow victimisation of Indians who tend to be very loyal to the government if they are in government positions, started many years ago.
It is also due to the class division amongst Indians, were the rich and professional lot think that the poorer segments are mostly those who indulge in criminal activities or acts which tend to get on the wrong side of the law.
Seeing disunity amongst the Indian political leadership and its masses, where clear lines are seen with those who have the power of patronage and those who are at the receiving end, the Malay political leadership see it fit to have it their way with the lower segment of ethnic Indians who mostly tend to sway towards the opposition.
At the risk of generalising, our police force has never been professional, although we have many police personnel who are highly educated these days. They are in the force for the positions, the connections that come with it after they retire, and last but not least to be in the right department or unit where there is a chance to "rake it in".
Most have become automatons who have no remorse or an iota of emotion in them which tells them that the person they are interrogating might be innocent. They might turn barbaric if it was their child who was tortured and killed by their own men in blue in the name of solving crime but no one has shown remorse by coming out into the open and criticising the force for its archaic ways of policing.
For this barbarism to stop, we have to change the entire government and with it, revamp the entire police force where the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General must be made responsible to Parliament. This way, their policies, decisions and actions will ultimately be watched and questioned by the people through Parliament.
One has no hope that the police force will change for the better unless a revolution takes place, where the people demand that the leadership of the police force step down and a commission is formed to take over until a complete revamp is done.
If the police force is corrupt and barbaric, the courts can make amends if it stops behaving subserviently to the force by questioning it and demanding to know what they have investigated before agreeing to remand a suspect.
But sadly our courts are made up of magistrates who are too scared to question the police. When our courts can save the day, they choose to keep quiet and let the press and the politicians do the talking.
Our courts have the constitution to safeguard and administer, to protect the rights of the people of this country but again they choose to keep quiet and allow this barbaric acts to fester.
Unless and until a strong commitment is conceived on part of the people to completely change the way in which this country is administered, these barbaric acts will continue and ethnic Indians will always be at the receiving end.
courtesy of malaysiakini
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