Ex-judge criticises police for siding with civil rights transgressors

Sheridan Mahavera Sheridan Mahavera Updated 6 years ago · Published on 11 Jan 2020 4:20PM · 5 Comments

Former appeals court judge Hishamudin Yunos has sharply criticised the police for its recent handling of racial and religious issues, saying they have sided with the transgressors instead of upholding the freedom of expression and assembly. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Seth Akmal, January 11, 2020.

THE police should not side with those who trample on people’s constitutional rights, said a former senior judge, who chastised authorities on how they handled recent racial and religious issues.

Hishamudin Yunos said the uproar over the teaching of jawi in vernacular schools and Chinese New Year decorations at a school as two examples of the “authorities siding with the transgressors”.

Instead of protecting the rights to freedom of expression and assembly of a group opposing jawi and the school’s administrators, the police had acted to silence them, Hishamudin, a former appeals court judge said.

This behaviour, he said, is dangerous as it sends the wrong message and make groups who incite racial and religious sentiments bolder.

“It is disappointing that whenever there are transgressors, the authorities will side with the wrong people,” Hishamudin told an audience at a forum on the administration of Islam in Malaysia.

A Malay student group, Gamis, had threatened Chinese education group Dong Jiao Zhong, which wanted to hold a congress on teaching jawi to primary four vernacular classes on December 27 last year.

Malay rights groups had threatened that racial riots will break out if Dong Jiao Zong persisted in holding the congress.

Due to the threat, police obtained a court order to stop the Dong Jiao Zong congress.

Days later, however, a Muslim student group went ahead to hold its anti-Dong Jiao Zong rally in Kuala Lumpur despite orders from police not to do so.

“So instead of arresting those people who threatened the peace, the police sided with the people who went against Dong Jiao Zong’s right to freedom of speech and assembly,” Hishamudin said.

The same thing occurred in SMK Pusat Bandar Puchong (1) where police asked the school to take down CNY decorations because a Malay nationalist party, Putra, protested against them.

Following Putra’s uproar, Pakatan Harapan ministers and state government officials visited the school to show their support for its parents and administrators.

“This type of behaviour (from the authorities) is dangerous. It sends the wrong message and makes those groups bolder in the future.” – January 11, 2020.

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Comments

  • The Home Minister and the IGP are well aware of this tendency but are powerless to correct it. The dark hands and deep state elements within the force have become too powerful to trifle with and the safest option is to allow it to continue. The PH government should take effective steps to purge the force of these unlawful elements which were nurtured by the previous BN administration to do the dirty and covert work for the benefit of the ruling party.

    Posted 6 years ago by Panchen Low · Reply

  • sir. well said and that seems to be the trend and unfortunately, our current govt seems to be on the silence mode. This would make the extreme bolder by the day.

    Posted 6 years ago by . . · Reply

  • This is not something new. It has been in the blood of the police for a long time. I still remember that during the May 13 affair, the then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman visited police lock-up to see who had been detained. He saw that they were all non-Malays and was upset. He asked whether no Malays were breaking the law. Only after that did the police began picking up the Malays who were rioting. The IGP must address this and change the mind-set of the police so that they do not see colour, race, religion in carrying out thier duties. What ex-judge Hishamudin Yunos is saying is absolutely correct. The police is sending the wrong message to people who think that "special privilege" extends to bullying the others and creating tensions between different people. For example why has no action been taken against the Manjung rowdies who trespassed into a convenience store and threatened to break all the beer bottles if they were not removed? If the police don't act against "orang kita" or "orang kami", the government's objective of creating a harmonious multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious nation will remain a pipe dream. The police must be colour blind, race blind, religion blind.

    Posted 6 years ago by Ravinder Singh · Reply

  • Only if we have a new PM, the 2Rs will continue to be manipulated for political gains.

    Posted 6 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • For the record, police are seen to be sympathetic based on " who" you are.

    Posted 6 years ago by Lipdah Lia · Reply