The shameful incident at the Kluang Ramadhan Bazaar recently where Kluang Member of Parliament Liew Chin Tong and his entourage were roughed up and chased away when they were handing out dates by a group of rowdy thugs is the latest of a series of disgraceful behaviour which is fast becoming a norm in this country.
This is not the first time this has happened to Liew and it certainly will not be the last as long as the police do not take action immediately against the perpetrators. I note a few of them have been arrested and I urge Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to commence investigations immediately with a view to charging them as a failure to do so will only encourage more of such incidents in the future.
That police inaction over such disgraceful acts may be the reason for such frequent occurrences of late cannot be excluded.
What happened to the incident where comedian Mat Over was caught on camera slapping filmmaker David Teo in front of the Prime Minister live? Why hasn’t he been charged for assault when there is actually a video of such assault?
Not long after the said Mat Over incident, Major (Rtd) Zaidi Ahmad, the information officer of the Chief Minister of Penang was slapped in front of a mosque in Penang by a protester who was offended by a question Zaidi had asked about the said protest. Yet, no one has been charged to date.
It is shocking that such straight forward cases seem to have escaped the long arm of the law. Perhaps if Mat Over was charged for the assault of Teo immediately after the incident, a stern message might have been sent that such disgraceful and dastardly behaviour will not be tolerated which might have made the perpetrators in Liew’s case think twice before they acted.
The delay of the police in taking action and in some cases, their complete failure to do so is certainly a cause for concern and cannot be allowed to continue. The examples mentioned above are straight forward cases caught on camera and really ought to be open and shut cases that can be resolved without much difficulty.
The incident involving Liew above isn’t merely ‘unnecessary’ as claimed by some. It is downright unlawful and requires punishment. The same applies to the other incidents mentioned above.
The IGP must act immediately or risk being labelled useless for his inability to address such elementary social ills which will, undoubtedly, tarnish the image of the force irreparably.