to protect & to serve?? yeah, right!!

i was reading the papers this morning over breakfast, a habitual routine & one article caught my eye which had me laughing out loud. two thoughts came to my mind - (i) old habits die hard; and (ii) these people got nothing better to do ah?

ever since i was little, i never liked the coppers. i went for tuition at a place which is very near to a police station. in the evenings, the young policemen would be having a game of sepak takraw & if i passed by the station to go to my sister's house or for classes, they would whistle & say 'adik gi mana?'. yeah, i know they are only human but....

then there was another incident where i was stopped by a patrol car 'cos i was supposedly on my mobile while driving. i was stuck in a slow moving traffic & had one hand on the wheel while the other was against the ledge of the car window leaning my head on my hand while i was chatting with my daughter in the passenger seat.

pakcik polis (pp): cik pakai h/phone tadi masa memandu
me: tak, saya letak tangan kat sini (gesturing) & tengah berborak ngan anak saya
pp: kalau saya cek kereta awak & jumpa h/p camana?
me: memang ada dalam glove compartment tapi bateri dah 'kong'. kalau tak percaya, ceklah
pp: kalau saya cek, h/p tu boleh pakai, camana?
me: kalau cik on & h/p tu boleh pakai, cik boleh simpan h/p tu (wah that time i got balls man)
pp: okay, bawak sini h/p tu (after numerous attempts to turn on the phone only to have the battery dead signal & it automatically turning off, he returned the phone to me). okay, lain kali jangan buat lagi.
me : (had to have the last say lah) memang saya tak buat tadi camana nak buat lagi
pp: okay boleh jalan
me: terima kasih

i told my hubby what happened & he said i was damn brave to tell the police pakcik the things i said. betul lah, berani kerana betul & takut kerana salah.

anyways, the thing is - the igp has advocated 'clean' police not accepting bribes, supposed to help the public, yada yada yada. then you get stories like missing children whom they can't locate for the life of them (call lah interpol ke, special 'csi'like help ke, fbi ke, abc ke) but bala goes to a neighboring country, immediately boleh jumpa. the people who threw paint on the candidates house ke, car ke, terrorize the voters in the bus ke, during the recent election; they can find in the lubang cacing. how liddat??? go figure....

then today's article in the star where 2 police officers lodged a report against each other. one policeman (lets call him p1) unsatisfied with how the 'collections' (monthly bribes from illegal activities operators) were distributed, lodged a report citing the superior got a lion's share & the rank and file got peanuts and p1 in fact got nothing. in retaliation the superior, a seargant lodged a report citing that the p1 was selling the station's property to sell to scrap dealers.

firstly, what about the 'anti-rasuah' campaign. they are already committing a major offense by accepting bribes & now got the balls to lodge a complaint & make public. then selling station's property pulak?? aren't these funded by the publics money, ie the tax you pay?? geez, so much for to protect & to serve....

i always thought of their slogan / decals they affix on the patrol cars & the badges they wear - saya anti rasuah or don't bribe me. you should add on to that - saya anti rasuah, kawan saya tidak. don't bribe me, bribe my friend....