Police protect gov't, not citizens

Aug 4, 09 

Lucian Eng Hiang: Street demonstrations are part and parcel of the free and democratic world. It occurs frequently in the western world including United States, Australia, United Kingdom and Europe. Police usually escort these demonstrations to ensure that they cause minimal disruptions to the daily lives of all citizens while allowing for a true democratic process to take place.

Here in Malaysia, the police purposely cause traffic jams by putting up roadblocks in places far, far away (examples - SS2, Nilai, North-South highway) from the actual demonstration locations to ensure that there are maximum disruptions and collaborate with the ruling government to suppress the opposition.

Our police force must be independent and protect the rights of all citizens regardless of political affiliations. After all, they are paid by the public from public coffers and not by the government. Moreover, demonstrations have not and never caused investors to shy away from investing in United States, Australia, United Kingdom and other European countries. 

Ali K: On Saturday, those who rioted on the streets of Kuala Lumpur were the people in uniform, paid by Malaysians to protect them. How ironic.

PKY: As per article 10(b) of the Federal Constitution, was it 'necessary' to blast cannons of chemically-laced water at children and women? Or was it really 'expedient' to fire tear gas at defenceless and helpless individuals, many of whom were not part of the protest?

Najib should be condemned for complimenting the police for their actions at Saturday's protest. The imposition of such oppressive and unreasonable restrictions have once again demonstrated the executive's inability to govern a maturing democratic society like Malaysia.

Strong: I refer to Faidhur Rahman's comment on Aug 2. While I respect his view, there is no doubt that ISA shall be use to curb terrorists, communists or whatever threat to the nation's security. However, there is a question that I believed which was raised - the relevant and fairness in the usage of ISA.

Very often ISA had been used to 'shut up' the opposition needlessly. Although some BN members were once ISA detainees, it's hard to name any politician that was detained during his/her time 'in' the BN fold.

As per the Drug and Criminal Act, to use that as an example is simply out of topic. So, I truly understand the rakyat for being annoyed on the abuse of ISA by the government.

Maniam Shankar: The self-proclaimed people's paper saw fit to run a headline report regarding the economic costs of street demos. But who caused the economic chaos? If even half the large number of police deployed to thwart the demonstrators were deployed to ensure the demonstration proceeded peacefully, there would not have been any chaos. 

The police's only purpose, it would seem, was to prevent citizens from turning up to show their disgust at this government. Why did people demonstrate even when the government said it is 'reviewing' the ISA?

That's because our leaders' lack credibility after having been in government for so long and not having done anything while the ISA was wantonly abused for political purposes.
www.malaysiakini.com/news/10984