When Senator Zainuddin was appointed to the Senate, I was among the first to congratulate him on his appointment hoping he would bring a breath of fresh air to what is generally regarded as a "political rubbish-dump" of the Senate, and that he would introduce greater sense and rationality in the national discussion of public affairs which had often been bogged down by "gutter" politics.
I am therefore very disappointed that instead, Senator Zainuddin seems to be competing even with the wilder fringes in the Barisan Nasional to make mischievous and preposterous allegations against the Opposition, as for instance, in his statement yesterday accusing the DAP of a secret agenda to carry out a campaign to turn the police force into the people’s enemy.
In the past three decades, the DAP had never flinched from taking a public though unpopular stand to expose abuses of power or malpractices in any government department, including the police, not because the DAP wants to blacken the image of the government, but because we want to improve it to provide the best possible service to Malaysians - as is their the right, as it is the Malaysian people who are responsible for the upkeep of the public service through their taxes.
I had myself many a time, both inside and outside Parliament, spoken up against police brutalities and malpractices, not to conduct any campaign to turn the police force into the people’s enemy as alleged by Senator Zainuddin, but to expose and root out the "black sheep" in the police force who were undermining public confidence in the independence, professionalism and integrity of the police, giving the police force a bad public image.
I hope Senator Zainuddin can support this campaign, not to turn the police force into the people’s enemy, but to expose and root out the "black sheep" in the police force who are sabotaging the campaign to make the Malaysian police "people-friendly".
On last Sunday’s demonstration at the national mosque, Senator Zainuddin should be aware of conflicting accounts of how a peaceful demonstration became unruly, with the police blaming the demonstrators while the demonstrators pinned the responsibility on police agent provocateurs.
If it was the demonstrators who were responsible, unprovoked, for turning a peaceful assembly into what the police described as a "riot", I fully support action taken against all those responsible in accordance with the law.
But if it can be proven that last Sunday’s demonstration at the National Mosque turned unruly because of the provocation of police agent provocateurs, will Senator Zainuddin agree that the full weight of the law should be brought against these trouble-makers?
The police had extensively photographed last Sunday’s demonstration which is also on police videotape. I had asked the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai, to show the full police videotapes on last Sunday’s demonstration to leaders of the Opposition. Will Senator Zainuddin support my call that the police should make available these photographic evidence so that it can be established as to who were the culprits last Sunday in turning a peaceful demonstration into an unruly one?
I am surprised that Senator Zainuddin has shown no interest or concern about the senseless killing of Dr. Tai Eng Teck, the latest example of a trigger-happy police.
Public pressure must be mounted to demand that the police purge its force of the trigger-happy mentality, not to turn the police force into the people’s enemy, but the opposite: to enable the police to be fully accepted by the people as their friend and protector.
The time has come for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Police,
with the widest terms of reference, to restore public confidence in the
police as the friend and protector of the people, covering matters such
as :
Will Senator Zainuddin support the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to restore public confidence in the police as a friend and protector of the people?
(26/9/99)