26 Apr 2024, 10:58 Kuching
26 Apr 2024, 03:58 London
“In my opinion, it was irrelevant for her (Nurul Izzah Anwar) to link my appointment with what had happened then, unless the decision to appoint me as the peace process facilitator was objected by Thai authorities or the Mara Pattani group.
“So far, from the feedback I have received, there is nothing to indicate their objection. These two parties are the ones which have stakes in the peace process,” he [Rahim] told Malaysiakini.
Rahim, who was the IGP between 1994 and 1999, was responding to Nurul’s post on Twitter this morning, where she stated her objection to his appointment, and described him as a “brutal assaulter of an innocent man.”
She was referring to her father Anwar, who was assaulted in police custody following his sacking as deputy prime minister in 1998, which left him with the infamous black eye.
This ex-law enforcer seems to hold the opinion that he ought to be forgiven a violent and illegal act, which he appears to admit to in that rather than denying he punched a prisoner in the eye, he merely calls the matter “irrelevant”.
One must therefore ask if he held the same opinion about violent and illegal acts carried out by the various people whom he arrested throughout his career. Did he hold their acts to be likewise “irrelevant” and let them off as gladly as he is ready to do for himself?
Unfortunately, people who have obtained positions of power very often do become lulled into the concept that the law they are enforcing against others does not apply to themselves, merely because their position of trust and authority enables them to get away with far too much.
This ex-cop has failed to deny the accusation against him and has failed to apologise or accept any form of punishment or reprimand for his brutal abuse of power against a man in custody. So, we have to assume he was guilty and remains unpunished and unrepentant, which means that his appropriateness for the position of “peace negotiator” is highly questionable.
Both he and those who appointed him ought to reconsider the offer of this post, as there ought to be several others who are morally more appropriate, provide a better example and who would be just as able and qualified whatever he claims his experience might be.
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