LAW & ORDER: Apai Salleh's Point of View

Our primal instinct is to protect. None of us denies that threadbare fact, and so it was with some surprise on a sunny Sunday morning, too read of Dato Tiong King Sing’s latest very public castigation of the Police Service in Sarawak, especially his criticism of Datuk Talib Jamal, a portly overweight bear-ish figure of a man.

Normally I would just move on and cast my eye elsewhere, but there was something very worrying here, considering Sarawak’s rather stale political landscape. As a rule, Barisan MP’s voice their concerns privately with their colleagues and acolytes in the Federal and State service. Issues and Matters are discussed quietly and resolved without so much as a hush. It’s been that way for decades and the Law or rather the Rule of Law prevailed in much of the State since the bygone days of the Brooke Raj and Iban rebellions, with the exception of certain emergencies in times of strife and war. These were off course the days when Bong Kee Chok, supreme strategist of the PGRS/Paraku planned local guerilla activities in Sarawak from his operating bases in Kalimantan. Not since his bought off capitulation by amnesty, coupled with some persuasion from the Tentera Nasional Indonesia, did he realize that armed struggle was not the way to challenge the State Government in Sarawak. Our previous Chief Minister, Tun Abdul Rahman Yakub paved the road to peace, and 500 guerillas agreed to lay down their arms, spared from suffering a worse fate in Indonesia.

Prior to the amnesty, Bong Kee Chok then was in his element. And so were the Security Services and the Government. It took backbone to end his notoriety in Sarawak, but ultimately, the credit for that may lay somewhere in a Military base in Jawa, rather than the quiet halls of the old Defence Ministry in Kuala Lumpur. The Indonesian Military chose to sever the influence of the PGRS/PARAKU militia, by organizing and directing one of the most brutal operations ever in the Upper Kapuas regions bordering Sarawak. Ethnic cleansing was a term coined in the backdrop of the Bosnian War in Europe, but it could almost be applied to describe the Indonesian approach to PARAKU’s eventual demise in Borneo. Needless to say, countless local Chinese were persecuted deliberately to the point of mass exodus from interior Kapuas. If anything, the TNI then in the late 60s created and refined a political-military approach to the Kalimantan States which was successfully implemented as a template to their pernicious campaigns in East Timor, Irian Jaya and Aceh.

If, as Clausewitz observed, war is a continuation of politics ‘by other means’, then political activities do not stop when war begins. On the contrary, politics intensify. In this regard, although Sarawak is not in a state of war, publicly at least, following Tiong’s outburst, it is teetering close to the edge in matters of Law and Order. The previous published interview in the News Straits Times, reveals just as much concern if not a whole lot more questions. Tiong, when asked, uses words like “Gangsterism”, “Sibu”, “Special Branch”, “Political Party” signaling his increasing concern at the lack of police action in response to rising lawlessness in the State.

I can see Tiong’s point, but somehow, as reiterated, his action is unusual in Sarawak politics. Publicly, no other Barisan MP from Sarawak has seriously complained about criminal activity, in the State for as far as I can recollect. To Tiong’s credit and following his call in Parliament, the Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan took the first immediate flight to Sarawak to meet Datuk Talib Jamal in Kuching and later ACP Nicholas Sebastian in Sibu. What transpired in those two meetings, no one quite knows, but for now, I can only surmise that Datuk Jamal’s tenure may perhaps be a markedly short one, a falling star in the eyes of more ambitious Police Commanders and Subordinates in elite RMP formations, eager to prove themselves.

Not since the days of the Emergency, has the entire Middle region of Sarawak been under the “eye of the needle” and the last straw that broke the camel’s back, may originate in the underlying culture of the criminal underworld itself. If we are to fully understand Tiong’s allegations, then the price of eggs may be just the tip of the iceberg spawning this issue. It would seem from gleaning the latest reports, that certain lead elements of the Police colluded with the Underworld to allow criminal activity to flourish and prosper. A worrying development for any democracy in the World, no matter the size.

In other words, almost every political system operates through laws and legal procedures. Laws passed by Gangsters are likely to favour gangsterism. Laws passed by cannibals will punish vegetarianism. All laws depend on the underlying culture and on the political system producing them. If we read into Tiong’s allegations, certain political parties may have had recruited known gangsters. And if a democracy is dictated by gangsters, then there is no such thing as law and order. Just Gangsterism. You effectively cease to have a political system or even any semblance of democracy.

The Rule of Law is just one of those concepts that must be understood, sadly too difficult to explain. At one time, Laws were sanctioned by the divine right of Kings. In democracies they are justified by the will of the people, as expressed through a constitution or through democratic institutions. In Sarawak, the Police Service is seen as that Institution serving the people. This public perception changed with the rise of criminal activity, and finally ending with Tiong’s outburst.

Fortunately, potential ramifications down the line may await not just those men who ruthlessly pursued their self interest criminally, but to those who govern the State. In an Emergency scenario, direct rule replaces parliamentary rule to quell any rebellion or any period of civil unrest. The Sarawak BN should be aware of the degree this thorny issue may cause, for if the Interior Ministry deems the State “lawless”, it may seek to use Emergency Ordinance to restore the Rule of Law. Without a doubt, the Federal Government takes very seriously any allegations of lawlessness in the State. It does so by deploying various means at its disposal, namely reactivating the role of the Security Service.

As it is, when the CID and Special Branch come a knocking, the gangster is betrayed for the coward he is, invariably he would often flee, but as the old saying goes, you can run, but you can’t hide. And for the clapped out Sibu fraternity, their days are numbered.