Who Is Responsible For The Gangster Culture In The Country Aka Encroaching On People S Rights

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 I was laughing to myself just now listening to our Amanah politician condemning UMNO for accusing the Courts of not being fair to Najib. Brother didnt you throw the same accusations against the same Courts when your hero the Rear Admiral was also sentenced to jail?
The late Justice Augustine Paul, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court in those days also followed "internationally accepted legal procedures". Yet you were all condemning the Judges and the Court system for being unfair to your hero. Have you forgotten?




Anyway today I wish to speak about gangster culture. This gangster culture I am referring to is the abuse of power by those in authority. It has been going on for a very long time. It is a problem. it did not start just yesterday.  I am not blaming the Malay people but it does involve too many Malays because when you speak about authority well the Malays are in charge. No one else.
Lets take the religious fellows. We have had too many cases where during the khalwat raids the fellow who is caught is often beaten up. No one (who does the beating) has been brought to trial. And many times the fellow caught in the khalwat raid has been killed - by falling off a balcony, when "jumping out a window" etc. That is what we read.

Then there was an infamous case where another Policeman who was also caught in a khalwat raid pulled out his gun and shot the fellows who were beating him up. I think one fellow died. The Policeman was later charged in Court - where he appeared walking on crutches. But again none of the fellows who beat him up were charged with anything.
But until today few in the country (I have highlighted this many times in the past) have objected to this type of gangster behaviour. 

Then there is that long list of 'custodial deaths' usually of persons dying unexpectedly while under Police custody. This has raised plenty of objections from the Indian community because there were frequent cases where the dead were Indians. 
Then we had the obviously gangster behaviour by the politiccal party hooligans who took to manhandling and assaulting people on the streets. There was that ill mannered ikan bakar fellow who went around with his goons manhandling people. Nothing happened to him then. There was the other Lobak fellow who also assaulted a student plus other things. Nothing happened to him either. Both were from the ruling party. Until the government changed. There was then some action initiated but they are still walking around. The government then changed again.
So there is this tacit approval by "authority", there is an implied "its ok to behave like this". 

So I believe people will still get killed during 'khalwat raids', I believe people will still die 'suddenly' while under custody and possibly the gangsters will re-appear when the next election comes along. Just wait and see.
There is this assumption that once in authority they can do whatever they want. The endless series of unbelievable and mindboggling corruption cases (which have been going on uninterruptedly for years without end, involving ministers and prime ministers) is clear evidence of people in authority commiting crimes or breaking the law with impunity. Once in authority they can do what they want. They finally got caught when they lost the elections - for the first time in over 60 years. 
Then there are the detentions, murders and disappearances. That Mongolian woman was murdered and blown to smithereens by Policemen who until today had no motive to kill her. Their motive was never established. But they were Policemen - they were obviously following orders.
Those of you who are supporters of the Rear Admiral do you recall why he was sent to jail for six years the first time around (in 1999)? Sodomy? WRONG!! You are wrong. Sodomy is the wrong answer. He was NOT sent to jail for sodomy. It was something completely different. Go and Google it. 
But in both cases - the Mongolian woman's death and the Rear Admiral's cases - there were  Policemen involved who played a major role in aiding those crimes. Again those in authority. When they are in authority and hold some power they firmly believe and act as though they will never be called to account for their wrong doings.
This is what I term the "official" gangster culture that we have in this country.  And this gangster culture is still around. It has not been broken yet. The cases in point are the abductions and disappearances (and possible murders) of Pastor Koh, Amri Che Mat, Pastor Helmi and his wife Ruth Sitepu and possibly one other (according to Suhakam). In the case of Pastor Koh the public inquiry by Suhakam pointed the finger at the 'authorities' again. 
But what has happened since then? Nothing. Where are they? Habeas corpus? Habeas corpus literally means "You shall have the body". Alive or dead - where are those people who were abducted?  And their cases also provide me more evidence that the gangster culture has sustained itself because even when the new government was in power (for 22 months) no official attempt was made to resolve their disappearances on an urgent basis. 
In my view (assuming that the FOUR persons are not alive anymore) the case has now become serial murder.  Four people (at least, there may have been a fifth person) were abducted, disappeared and will not come back again. That is serial murder.  (If you think they are being kept alive somewhere in Tibet or Uzbekistan you can go and jump in the sea. They are gone.)

And no one raised the issue. No huge crowds gathered to protest their disappearances. in Argentina, in the 1970s thousands of people protested the disappearances of their loved ones who were abducted and killed by the military junta.


But here there are people who say, 'He deserved it. Who asked him to preach christianity to the Malays?' Or 'he deserved it, he was a Shia'. 

As I said I have written many times in this Blog about the khalwat raids that often resulted in death. At that time the "Comments" were allowed in the Blog. I used to get comments like 'the  boy deserved to die because he was committing khalwat'. I used to delete such sick comments.
Seven years ago when the Saudis attacked Yemen, I highlighted the Saudi aggression many times in this Blog. Again I used to receive comments saying 'The Houthis (Yemenis) are Shia. they deserved to be bombed". Again I just deleted these sick people.
The same type of comments were made when the ISIS raped christian Yazidi women or sold them as slaves in Iraq. "They deserved it, they are Yazidis'. Or when Sufi mosques were being blown up in Syria by the ISIS there were comments that the Sufis were practising shirik and their mosques deserved to be blown up. I deleted all such comments.

These comments were all written in English by people who had obviously gone to school and university and learned to read and write. But quite obviously there is a higher level of barbarism imbued into their brains that dominates their psyche. So they are not really educated. They can only read and write. 
So who are these people? Are they aliens from outer space? Martians? Nope. They are you. Yes you dear reader.  If it is not you directly, it is your cousin, your father, daughter, sister, brother, close friend etc etc who is involved in this type of behaviour. The society seems to tolerate this behaviour. Or large portions of society. Or a particularly large portion of the society.  And that includes you. 
There is something in the upbringing, or in the religious indoctrination or in the culture (maybe feudalism), or some latent slavish mentality which triggers an acceptance (including becoming a party to the act) of encroaching upon the other person's rights. That it is ok to criminally invade another human being's personal space.  
That it is ok to kill someone - or turn a blind eye. Or even applaud their killing. If they are Shia, if they are of another religion, if they are Mongolian (?) etc. Its ok to explode their mosques. Its ok for the bullies to go around manhandling people.

And of course all this is connected to keeping the leaders in power so that they can  continue helping themselves to billions of the public funds. Because the dear leader is the source of patronage that supports their own sustenance. 
So the entire system becomes corrupted. Correction : has become corrupted. In every way imaginable.  Because you surrender yourself to their patronage. The root of the evil.

 




 The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT
By Syed Akbar Ali 

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