When the police are corrupt, how can the citizen be safe?

One surprising development of the past two days is the surfacing of a harsh report dunning the Malaysian police as the "most corrupt" government department in that country. What makes the damning report both credible and painful is that it wasn’t written by some muckraking expose group or by the usually cooperative media in Kuala Lumpur, but by a government commission appointed by no less than Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in December 2003.

The state inquiry clearly concluded in its 576-page report that the police had engaged in "extensive and consistent abuse of human rights." I recall that when former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was first arrested under charges pushed against him by the now retired Prime Minister, the redoubtable and combative Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar was even beaten up in jail by no less than the chief of police!

The commission’s panel reputedly interviewed more than 1,000 persons in preparing its report and among the key changes proposed by it was a revision of the law inherited from the British colonial regime called the Internal Security Act (ISA) which authorizes police to hold suspects indefinitely without trial.

This has, of course, been a very useful law for Malaysia’s political chiefs, particularly Dr. Mahathir who never hesitated to use it to crack down on any hostile or critical elements in Malaysia. Invoking ISA, Mahathir, as concurrently Home Minister (their equivalent of Secretary of Interior and Local Governments), could order the detention of anyone on mere suspicion naturally on the premise that those held in detention were assisting the police and the authorities in their inquiries. Thus, prisoners could be kept in "jail" for weeks, months, even years – and their release could not be demanded under writs of habeas corpus since technically they were not under arrest on charges of any crime.

Mahathir over the years "caused" the arrest of such high ranking personalities as jurists of the high court, influential and popular politicians, editors and journalists, and various "dissidents" in the interest of national security. This ISA law assured him and his government of continuing power, cowed the opposition, silenced critics, or tamed them at least into more cooperative behavior. And the country’s 100,000-strong police taking advantage of their authority, utilized it for personal purposes as well.

What’s notable is that the royal commission had been convened by Badawi, who himself, as Home Minister, had supervised the police. As soon as he became Prime Minister he set out, by his own announcement, to tackle corruption – and one of his first moves was to create the commission 14 months ago. Now, the Prime Minister will personally head a Task Force which must implement the panel’s 125 proposed reforms.

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Yesterday noon, although suffering from jet lag (which must have been evident in my rambling speech), I addressed the Rotary Club of Makati in the Manila Peninsula Hotel. The surprise and over-ambitious topic which had greeted me on my arrival from Los Angeles two days earlier had been dreamed up by the Club’s energetic president, Freddie Borromeo: "How I Would Solve the Country’s Economic Crisis if I were President of the Philippines." Gee whiz, I told Freddie, I can’t even solve my home-budget problems!

What was fascinating was that our friend, Argentina’s Ambassador Mario Schuff, a Makati Rotary Club member, was in the audience. He met the announcement of that topic with a wide grin. After all, had not a Moody’s Investors’ Service analyst, just outraged our officialdom by declaring that we were now disastrously like Argentina. As I had to remark in my speech, Argentina is already heading out of the crisis, while we are in the process of heading into it. If we don’t pull out of the current nosedive, Moody’s and other ratings agencies will be warning other countries: "Watch out, or you’re going to be in the poorhouse like the Philippines – and like Argentina used to be!"

No llores por mi, Argentina! As Evita sang in the Andrew Lloyd Weber version.

Also in the audience was another friend, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Nebogatov, also a Makati Rotarian. The problem in Russia is not fiscal, but belongs to that country’s former "richest man," now its most miserable. The signals are becoming clearer that jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky – once estimated by FORTUNE magazine to possess a fortune of 10 billion euros ($15 billion) – could be sentenced to as long as 10 years in jail.

The 41-year old former swinger, behind bars since his arrest on October 25, 2003, has already been found guilty of theft with conspiracy, damage to property rights via fraud, malicious failure to obey a court order and personal tax evasion.

The rest of the verdict, still being read in the Meshchansky District Court, may take another week to announce – but poor Khodorkovsky is evidently kaput. The giant oil conglomerate he ran is now practically dismantled.

What brought Khodorkovsky down is that he moved too fast it seems, supported opposition moves against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and even asserted he intended to run for President himself. Sorry for him. Not all countries which call themselves "democracies" have the same idea of how democracy is defined.

In any event, I begged off the topic of what I would do if I were President. I said that under the context of our society, with 55,000 heat-seeking lawyers ready to apply for TROs and writs of injunction, and courts so eager to impose them, what could a mere President of the Republic do? I suggested – and hoped I did not sound facetious – that only a "King", or a Dictator could make any headway. But we experienced that "dictator" bit before, during the 20-year hegemony of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos. It turned out that Apo Ferdinand was not out to save the nation, but rather grab the nation’s wealth and put it into his own savings account. The Apo’s obsession, as I’ve said before, was really "power" – and money or gold were only the means he believed were needed to perpetuate it.

As for getting ourselves a King, what the heck. We thought we already had La Emperadora ruling our land, but it turns out she cannot even impose capital punishment.

Perhaps we ought to borrow that Internal Security Act from the Malaysians, after they themselves dispose of it. But I don’t believe the Malaysian leader will abandon ISA. It’s too useful a tool. Without it, probably, former P.M. Mahathir might not have been able to hold the line on the Ringgit, erect the Petronas Towers, build up a cyber-city, streamline the economy, and "discipline" Malaysia. Or boost the fortunes of the Bhumis, who might have remained village boys in the kampungs, and not gone on to become nattily-attired business suit executives in air-conditioned offices.

If I’m not mistaken, ISA in both Malaysia and Singapore evolved from the old British PPSO, or Preservation of Public Security Ordinance. This law proved useful to Singapore’s founding father, former P.M. Lee Kwan Yu, whose son, former Brig. Gen. Lee Hsien Loong now runs the store as Prime Minister. In Singapore’s case, it lucked out by having an honest, hardworking, dynamic Double First from Cambridge as its first leader, and P.M. for many decades. Mr. Lee virtually planted every tree, cleaned up the stinking Singapore river, and converted that former colonial backwater into Asia’s premier port, an entrepot of trade, a manufacturing phenomenon. In sum, L.K.Y. propelled Singapore into the 21st century as an increasingly wealthy and powerful city-state.

Was it Winston Churchill who once said that democracy isn’t wonderful, but other systems are worse? I don’t know if he was right. Methinks our democracy is worse. How to repair it? Don’t ask me. Journalists may sound like they have all the answers, but just try threatening to make them "President" and they’ll run in panic, away from the very idea. What? Become President and be attacked by journalists? What an intimidating thought.

Former United States Vice President Spiro Agnew once assailed journalists as "nattering nabobs of negativism." Look what happened to him.

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I don’t understand the excessive hype being given the so-called P5-million "Press Freedom Fund" launched by President Macapagal-Arroyo and Speaker Joe de Venecia. We appreciate their gesture, and the money’s welcome – if only to remunerate informers who reveal who’re murdering media-persons and newsmen, or protect witnesses in such crimes under a witness protection program. President GMA was right to assert that the "growing culture of violence" must be stopped.

But all this smacks too loudly of mere image-building, not serious intent. Money doesn’t solve the problem – not only of the murders of journalists, but of the killings of citizens from every walk of life. Five million pesos is a drop in the bucket, for that matter, compared to the hundreds of millions the jueteng lords, the drug lords, and the violent criminal dynasties can offer their minions – and their protectors.

We may disagree with many of the practices being undertaken in the People’s Republic of China, the fastest-growing economic and military power in our region, but Beijing’s response to violence and crime has proven both swift and effective. It’s true that in a totalitarian society like China there’s room for much abuse – and surely many who’re innocent are rotting away in Chinese prisons (as they are, by the way, in ours).

In dealing with violent crime, or blatant corruption, the Chinese government does not hesitate or quail. It carries out 14,000 executions per year – with no apologies to either the European Union, or its Asian neighbors. The EU scolds who dump on us for having an "uncivilized" death penalty kowtow supinely to Beijing, hopeful of trade deals and import-export bonanzas. In April, two hapless Filipino tourists, Mr. Emmanuel Madrigal and his daughter Regina Mia were stabbed to death in Beijing’s central Tienanmen Square, which was, at that very moment, teeming with policemen. The two had been attacked without warning by an apparently deranged man, who was found to have been wielding a Samurai sword! The tragic incident occurred embarrassingly just before China’s President Hu Jintao arrived in Manila for a state visit, coming from Bandung.

The culprit was immediately taken in custody – and while nothing can bring our two innocent victims back from the grave, we’ll soon witness how Chinese justice works. Not months or years from now, I’m assured, but very shortly. The verdict will be death and it will probably be carried out in typical Chinese fashion: one bullet to the back of the head, with the killer’s family having to pay for the bullet if they wish to redeem the man’s body. That’s how justice, Beijing-fashion, is done – without fuss or apology.

The next sword-wielding fanatic or crazy will certainly think twice about stabbing anybody – most of all in high-profile Tienanmen Square.

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In our country, nobody’s punished in this manner. So, neither killers nor ordinary hoodlums and bullies are never scared. If our President wants to protect helpless citizens, never mind just journalists, let her make clear that death awaits those who mete out death. Only then, not with five million pesos, will everyone be able to begin to feel safe.

Too many of our policemen, sad to say, are themselves crooked or in cahoots with the masterminds of crime. I regret to say that they’ll have to be made to feel "scared", too, of retaliation in the form of capital punishment.

If we’re not strong, firm, and unrelenting in punishing crime, crime will continue to flourish -– and thumb its nose at the law. Law means nothing, if lawmen don’t enforce it – with full force.