By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo! News
24.10.2013
Hahahaha! So the story now is that some policemen lost their guns while they were taking a pee, izzit? And this was revealed in Parliament by the guy who has just been elected Umno vice-president!
Did the guns drop into the toilet bowl and got flushed down?
Well, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi did not provide the gory details when he was giving his written answer in Parliament to a question raised by Opposition MP Tian Chua about the Auditor-General’s having reported that the police lost 44 loaded firearms between 2010 and 2012.
However, Zahid did also reveal that some guns were lost when cops got mugged. Woh! Cops getting mugged? Imagine that! If cops can get mugged, what hope is there for ordinary people?
Cops are crime-busters. They are supposed to apprehend muggers. How do they get mugged instead? Are they not fit to be cops? How did they get hired in the first place? Is that why crime is on the rise?
No wonder only last week, the New York Times ran a report highlighting the “soaring crime rate that has blighted Kuala Lumpur, previously considered one of Asia’s safest cities, and other urban areas across Peninsular Malaysia”.
It said that the United States Embassy in KL was prompted to send this warning to American citizens in the city: “Remember to carry your backpack or purse on the shoulder AWAY from the road to prevent having it snatched by motorbikers.”
It quoted a Malaysian criminologist saying, “There are a lot of people not reporting crimes, because they feel there’s nothing the police can do.”
OMG! We are becoming known throughout the world for the wrong reasons. Where do the police hide their faces?
Come to think of it, how did they feel when their own chief, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar, responded to the Auditor-General’s report three weeks ago by saying that the lost guns could have fallen into the sea? Did they squirm with embarrassment or did they applaud the IGP for providing comic relief?
Strangely, though, in his written reply to Tian Chua, Zahid did not give falling into the sea as one of the ways the police lost their guns. Why is that? Is the home minister not communicating with the IGP although the police force comes under his ministry? They can’t get their stories straight?
And yet they both seem to be outdoing each other in sounding laughably ridiculous!
Is it not enough that Malaysia has become an international laughing stock because of the Court of Appeal’s verdict against the Catholic weekly The Herald using the word ‘Allah’ to refer to God? Is it not enough that Malaysia lost dignity and honour over its refusal to even allow Chin Peng’s ashes to be brought home from Thailand?
Must we add to our notoriety by earlier saying that the guns of our policemen fell into the sea, and now that they got lost while the policemen were in the toilet?
By the way, what does it take to qualify as a minister or an IGP these days? The ability to talk stupid?
Actually, Zahid gave five reasons for the loss of the guns. The other three were that they were:
* mislaid in the office,
* stolen from a vehicle, and
* dropped in the course of duty.
However you look at it, you cannot but conclude that they all smack of negligence.
How could something as important as a gun – a weapon of destruction – get mislaid in the office? How big could the office be that a search for the missing item would not be able to locate it? Why, in the first place, was the officer so careless as to leave the weapon lying around that it might somehow sprout legs and crawl away?
And how could a gun be stolen from a vehicle? Why did the officer responsible for it leave it there? Did he also leave a note on the dashboard saying, “Gun on board, car safe”? Shouldn’t he be carrying the weapon with him all the time? Is he not provided with a holster to tuck the gun in?
As for dropping a gun in the course of duty, it might happen if the officer was involved in a chase after a suspect on foot or engaged in fisticuffs with one – and credibility could indeed be given to this reason. Yes, we could cut the officer some slack. Nonetheless, it is still incumbent on him to check that the gun is intact in his holster after the chase or fight is over. If not, he is being irresponsible or careless.
To be sure, Zahid again did not provide the gory details for these reasons, so we may just have to wait for him to be probed for them. And who knows? He might outdo himself with the answers.
On the whole, however, this business of the police losing guns is shocking and shameful. It compounds the public perception of their incompetence at battling crime. The criminologist’s observation reverberates with painful truth: “There are a lot of people not reporting crimes, because they feel there’s nothing the police can do.”
How will the police bring back their pride? Would it require a complete overhaul of the police force?
How will they save their reputation from going down the toilet?
* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the new book The Elections Bullshit, now available in bookstores.
///So the story now is that some policemen lost their guns while they were taking a pee, izzit? …Did the guns drop into the toilet bowl and got flushed down?/// When does “pee-ing” (by presumably a man personnel) require him to take off his whole trousers/weapon/holster??? Must be doing his “big business” and not the small one of peeing lah Mr Kee…and probably in a situation of an urgent call of nature – diarrhoea! For what kind of toilet bowls we have (whether within or outside police precincts) whose hole/drain pipes (3 inch diameter??) are big enough to flush down a gun? The holster/weapon along with trousers must have been taken off in a hurry and thrown outside as they rushed into the toilet and closed the door under the imperative of stomach pains & diarrhoea throes (where someone outside took advantage by taking / stealing the gun!)
Sometimes, words are best described in pictures…. :)
http://www.zunar.my/toons/cabinet-apes/
If police personnel could lose weapon due to being mugged by criminals what chance do civilians (without weapons) have on our streets? When weapons were lost (not on streets) in seas / rivers, this must have been the marine police on patrol in sea / rivers, and since it’s conceivable that they accidentally dropped the weapons whilst fishing on duty it must be explained in their favour that they were mugged by pirates at seas as well!
Given the lacksadasical attitude of the authorities towards missing guns, it is quite possible that some have also been sold to gangs.
After all, that can be a profitable trade – sell your gun for RM8000 and pay the replacement cost of RM5000?
For the life of me, I still believe that lamentations and heavy criticism of the police is counterproductive. What we have really is a police force that is DYSFUNCTIONAL. You cannot say the police are bad or that they just simply corrupt. They simply don’t function as they should because they firstly there are corruption from the bosses first and within the force and secondly because their accountability is poor. Its DYSFUNCTIONALITY.
The DYSFUNCTIONALITY explains why our current Home Minister is so popular among them and UMNO hard-core, because in all case of internal emotional conflict, clarity and decisiveness, no matter how much wrong comes with it, is as appealing as cocaine, heroin to a drug addict.
Unfortunately, the word does not have a real equivalent in Malay that the everyday person especially the rural Malays understand. How do you explain to the heartland Malays that they are at fault and at the same time say its not entirely their responsibility? How worst then to explain, that its tough-love to an entire institution is required to fix the problem?
Visit Malaysia 2014 – The laughing stock of the world. Diverse stupidity. Truly A Shame. Here are some highlights for tourist:
1: Becareful of endangered species umnob. They are abundant here and protected by Article 13. Do feed them with dough especially those located at Putrajaya national park. Do not disturb the endangered species with words like A11ah or Altantuya in West Malaysia. They will run amok. Feed them occasionally, especially along the North-South highway.
2: Enjoy our beautiful sea. If you decided to swim beware of guns. Watch your children as they may stumble upon loaded guns in the sea. Courtesy of our Home ministry.
3: Stay away from high rise buildings. Especially those MacC buildings. No, not McDonald. People are known to strangle themselves using their own hands and jump off the building.
4: Journalist beware. At times you will be ISA-ed to protect you from endangered species, especially when you report the truth.
5: Do not worry about transportation, either sea, land or air. Ours is the most expensively constructed in the world.
6: Do not worry too much about our national security. Occasionally we do have fighter jets with no engines and submarines which can’t dive. That’s all.
7: No worries. The ordinary Malays, Chinese and Indians are easy to get along with. Just need to watch out for bad elements like poly ticks. Enjoy your stay.
It wasnt too long ago when we hear almost on a daily basis of news about break-ins, snatch thieves and smashed car windows from our relatives, friends, neighbours and colleagues.
Now in addition to those we hear more and more incidents of murders and hired killings.
Our polis must b using d olden-day BUCKET type toilet, with a huge hole dat swallows guns/weapons easily (Surely a gun can’t b flushed out through d tiny outlet of a modern day toilet; bluff also must have class 1 mah)
No wonder international gangsters n thieves love 2 flock 2 1M’sia 2 ply their trades – no need 2 come 2 1M’sia armed, just visit some toilets n hey presto, will easily get armed
Some more, now with d new OSA, polis cannot tell d truth abt weapon loss, sooooo nice 1
Our polis must b using d olden-day BUCKET type toilet, with a huge hole dat swallows guns/weapons easily (Surely a gun can’t b flushed out through d tiny outlet of a modern day toilet; bluff also must have cl@ss 1 mah)
No wonder international gangsters n thieves love 2 flock 2 1M’sia 2 ply their trades – no need 2 come 2 1M’sia armed, just visit some toilets n hey presto, will easily get armed
Some more, now with d new OSA, polis cannot tell d truth abt weapon loss, sooooo nice 1
Not too long ago, someone scratched the word “Bodoh” on the boot lid of a police car in Kulai, Johor. This vandal must be commended. He foresaw what will happen to the police in the future. And now it has come to pass with the mindless answers from the IGP whose infectious dumb-dumb answers has infected the Home Minister as well.
I remembered the man who started the Allah controversy when he was the Home Minister also explained once that the police beat base in Chow Kit had to be closed because “it was dangerous”. If the police had to abandon Chow Kit what about the people? This same person also locked up the Sin Chew reporter under the ISA “for her own safety” . And when he was pinned to the wall during a BBC HARDTALK interview as to why after Tun Tan Siew Sin, Malaysia never appointed another non Malay as Finance Minister, all he could do was only to mumble “..we do things our way..”
So insofar as the brains dept are concerned, it is a no brainer where UMNO is concerned.
Oh tidak,bab makan, polis kita reputasinya tinggi – makan suap…
My son drop his mobile phone in the toilet 2 months ago, he got scolding from the mother and feel so ashamed he willing to go without it. He reminds us not to tell anyone how he lost the phone. I told my wife that the Polis Di Raja do the same thing too and is a weapon of destruction “GUN”; maybe we are a bit too hard on the kid, so he might get his mobile phone again HA HA!!!