How do we proceed from here?

– The Malaysian Insider
Jun 27, 2013

If Malaysians are to have respect for the country’s institutions, they must have respect for the men and women who staff these institutions. The minute we harbour doubts about the character and integrity of an individual leading an organisation, it only stands to reason that our view of that organisation will be down in the dumps as well.

This premise holds true for the police and the Election Commission.

Yesterday the standing of Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar’s took a big hit. He was accused by Justice Datuk VT Singham of malfeasance in the death in police custody of A. Kugan.

He was the Selangor Chief Police when there was a cover-up to hide the fact that police personnel beat the suspect to death. It is no wonder that there are calls for his resignation.

We should expect nothing less than integrity, honesty and a great respect for the rule of law from any policeman. These are minimum standards. How much more should we expect from the IGP?

He sets the tone for the whole force.

Can we be certain that he will not turn a blind eye to criminal acts by his men as he seemed to have done those years ago? Death in police custody is a big concern, and there seems to finally be some momentum on the government’s part to tackle this issue.

Does Khalid have the standing to clean up the force and set an exemplary standard of behaviour? The High Court’s judgment does not make for comforting reading.

Of even less comfort was Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim’s disclosure that the Election Commission used food dye, instead of indelible ink at the May 5th general election.

At what point does our rage against the EC subside? The day the chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof and his deputy Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar are shown the door?

The duo have compromised the public standing of this institution by their partisan comments and unwillingness to accept that there is much public skepticism about their handling of the elections.

They have been so reluctant to clean up the electoral rolls and everytime some critic brought up questions about the possibility of electoral fraud, they proudly trumpeted the use of indelible ink as proof of the EC’s commitment to free and fair elections.

Well, now we know all about the indelible ink. And to think that Malaysians had to wait nearly two months after the elections to find out the truth about the “ink”.

What more are they hiding for the electorate? Is electoral reform possible with the two compromised leaders of the EC still calling the shots?

Perhaps a better question is this: what happens to an institution or organisation when the top is infected with disease, malaise, poor judgement,etc?

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19 Replies to “How do we proceed from here?”

  1. Khalid Abu Bakar should never have been promoted in the first place. as should not have happened with Zahid Hamidi..But when you have a PM that was fighting to appoint his ‘war room’ election strategist even though they failed miserably, its not merit that results in your promotion but simple crass political clannism or cronyism..

    This country need to get rid of crony economics urgently but reducing political cronyism is just as much as part of it..

  2. There should be 2 official inquiries if the people are expected to trust the government:

    1.The IGP’s improper handling of the Kugan case.
    2. The Election Commission and how they decided to use food dye instead of proper indelible ink.

  3. A State top police officer has expressly done such heinous cover-up of death of detainee in police custody yet get promoted to deputy IGP (now IGP), then lower ranking police officers do not qualms to do similar acts in their investigations

  4. How do we proceed from here? The ball is in the BN government’s hands. It is very used to turning a blind eye that all shortcomings are regularly ignored and it will be ‘business as usual’. Malaysians have short memories due to their ‘diet’ and for the few that do make noise, well, what can they do?

    Don’t forget. We still have about 5 Cabinet Ministers and Deputies whose appointments are dubious but it does not worry the government and no corrective action is planned. It is business as usual, haze or no haze. It is the BN way and tradition.

  5. Food colouring?

    I have always commented that the ink is of the ‘edible’ kind not of the indelible type. Now that it is confirmed, then maybe the EC and the ink’s supplier could have committed fraud for misleading the public for so long. Infringed the Trade Description Act at least, possibly more Acts. Maybe they even made a killing on the deal.

    The Rulers, who appointed the EC and other senior officials, must make a stand and get rid of these dishonourable and untrustworthy people. Imagine. All the Commissioners were in on it but they continued to deceive the people. The Police continue to hide their wrongdoings. What else in this country is fraudulent? Can we believe the APIs, the crime index or that the two fellows are innocent of the killing?

    Yes. In 1Malaysia you never know just what is the truth. It is often deliberately hidden, fabricated or distorted. It is now part of our government’s culture and tradition.

  6. A more relevant question would be what happens to a country when the top leadership is infected with malaise, poor judgement and corruption. The answer is quite simple. It slowly gets hollowed out and dies.The rot has started long time ago and things can only get much worse. Malaysian ringgit will drop to perhaps 4 Ringgit to Sg$1 and GST goes up to 20% before the rural folks gets hungry and wakes up to realise that their hero UMNO has been sucking them dry all these years. But that may be a little too late as oil has run out, EPF gone, soverign fund evaporated and the most talented have left the country. The corrupted parasites have also left enjoying their billions stashed away in some far off countries. What’s left to do is to lynch those who cannot not get away and Malaysia becomes another cheap labour country. Our young men turn into cheap labourers. Women turn into domestic helpers and prostitutes overseas to earn foreign exchange. This is the fate that awaits Malaysia with such leadership and the day of reckoning isn’t that far off. We may indeed be already there. Once the ringgit collapses nothing can save it. Not even capital control this time. The ringgit has already started to slide. Should be above Ringgit $3 to SG$1 by year end.

  7. Najib respond to Sdr. Lim on national reconciliation is that it begins by the opposition accepting the result of the GE and stopping the rallies – in other words supporting the EC duo that is the focus of pressure.. With UMNO election round the corner, Najib clearly believes he must looks every bit an UMNO stalwart that believes in the Mahathirist ideology rather than a reformist.

    But the more important point is that Najib does not look like he has any new clue how to proceed. His script is as old and predictable as Mahathir making excuses for his failures and damages he has inflicted and continue to do so to us..

    So how we proceed? – ironically Anwar instinctively has it right, just continue pushing the limits until something changes or breaks. Our civility, our society itself will be pushed to the limits until either something breaks or we agree that no more..

  8. How we proceed?

    Government administration must change

    Otherwise they got wrong impression that those corrupted politicians thought they owned the country

    It is very insulting Malaysian stupid acts corrupted still dominate our admin

  9. I think the UMNO led government should stop behaving like they are under siege, having a myopic vision as if everyone is out to get them, and therefore focusing only on rescuing their dwindling political fortunes.

    Instead, they should roll up their sleeves and start salvaging themselves by doing the right thing. To illustrate, an employee who is not doing so well have a choice of continuing to play politics to blame others for his/her weakness – or he/she can roll up the sleeves and start putting in the hours, commitment, and dedication to turn him/herself around. If he/she continues to play politics and his/her productivity is low, it does not matter if he/she is child of a Tun, Tan Sri or Datuk, any company that values meritocracy will show him/her the door sooner or later.

    The same applies to UMNO. Don’t think for a moment that Malaysians, especially the rural Malays, will forever tolerate UMNO, because 5 years is a long time for Pakatan to change the perception that UMNO is the only guardian of Malay rights.

    Sometimes, it only takes an imperceptible shift for rural Malays (and some “conservative” urban Malays) to realise that values like transparency, courage, vision and professionalism is more beneficial than the emotional attachment to race and religion – especially when the latter is preserved by closing a blind eye to UMNO’s endemic corruption and abuse of power. There is only so much patience in people and UMNO should not take anyone for fools.

    I would rather that UMNO decides that it really needs to move to the middle and undertake the necessary reforms to win the hearts and minds of Malaysians now rather than try to win another election by patently unfair methods.

  10. Therein lies the fundamental problem of Malaysian institutions – tainted leadership. How can you have law and order when our leaders have integrity questions over their heads.

    Just imagine a case where you have a leader of an institution who is corrupted. Do you expect this leader to be able to fight corruption when you yourself is corrupted? Just like a pot calling a kettle black or akin to someone throwing stones at another’s house when his own house is made of glass!

    It is only sensible that the IGB resigns or the government retires him permanently for him to keep his pensions. In the case of the EC chief and his “edible” ink, he still stubbornly refuses to resign when he should. RM7m spent on inks with food colouring (or it could have been Faber Castell’s water colours) and he claims the supplier cannot be revealed due to national security. Someone just conned us of Rm7m and is getting away scott free! Or rather, more appropriately, someone just became a multi-millionaire overnight!

    Sadly, it is the norm in Malaysia for tainted leaders to get away with crimes and most get promoted to higher post later on. There is a fundamental flaw in our system when you have such leaders voted back in time and time again. There is also a fundamental flaw in the thinking of people who voted these people in.

    The infamous MCA president is a case in point. With a proven sex scandal, Chua continues to helm the party with no shame or remorse and he still behaves as if he has done no wrong and when he speaks, he becomes the laughing stock of everyone.

    There will be a breaking point for tolerating all these nonsense. Hopefully, the breaking point comes sooner than later but until then, there is very little people can do except to voice out because the people in power are the problem – People with Integrity Issues!

  11. Three times the rakyat rallied – asking for clean and fair election.

    Bersih 1.

    Bersih 2.

    And Bersih 3.

    The third round attracted some 50,000 people.

    And umno’s response to the rakyat’s demand?

    Quite clearly, umno saw rakyat’s demand as a big fat joke!

    And worse. Umno saw the demand for indelible ink as an opportunity to make some money. So umno’s EC gave us plant based ink instead of the real thing.

    That means, on top of ridiculing the rakyat, umno cheated in the election by using ink that is not indelible and also cheated the rakyat of money.

  12. This was once a bright-budding Nation but the core fundamentals that bind, build, strenghten this Nation had been tweaked/manipulated by ONE Mamak eversince, and even now.
    This ONE Mamak is the main culprit that had brought this Nation to this present state and ALL for his own self- interest and presevation.
    There are only CROOKS, CHEATS in Bumno.
    The present ‘PM’ (by cheating) is tainted to the core by ALTANTUYA C-4 gruesome murder case. (And now trying to do cleansing – latest, oh Najis has no link to case, LOL. Only can FOOL those kampung folks !).
    So, only way to proceed ” A B U comes G14 !!! , any day, any time ” A B U ” is the AIM.
    Stay steadfast on A B U !

  13. The country’s top police officer was accused by a senior judge of malfeasance. This is unprecedented and is highly disgraceful. If the IGP is a responsible person, he should offer his sincere apologies to the family of Kugan and to the rakyat of the country and resign gracefully without delay. By stepping down immediately, at least he can still salvage a little bit of respect.

  14. so we know by now why crime rates are escalating,som
    e snatch-thieves,rempits,gangsters,a-longs,robbers,rapists,drug addicts,datuk-datuk and their relatives (especially son),can we say that they have big brothers in ppdrm “helping” them?

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