Driving by...

I've had a few people tell me that there are bad cops and good cops but I've had many fellow Malaysians tell me that all cops are bad cops - in Malaysia, that is.

A friend chronicled an incident with one such bad-cop-in-Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This said friend was unfamiliar with some parts of the wonderful city of Kuala Lumpur and it just happened to be an ill-fated night for her as she drove in the wrong direction of a road. It was just her luck too that a cop actually noticed and proceeded to stop her(Malaysia is well equipped with regulations but not so much with reinforcements, you see) . The bad cop was just doing his job, I guess, when he asked for her I.C (Malaysian Identification Card) but my surprised friend had no choice but to query the cop in return. This last action was triggered by the fact that the cop also asked for my friend's friend's (the passenger) I.C. I suppose this isn't something to be taken aback by, but the bad cop's respond - when my friend asked why it was necessary to see the passenger's I.C - was unbecoming of a man of his occupation. He merely answered "saya polis!" (I'm a police!"). In between this and the final words exchanged, the bad cop even managed a snarky comment after realising my friend's origin, when he said: "Dari Sabah? Ini mesti Bugis!" (You're from Sabah? Then you must be Bugis!). First of all, my friend is not a Bugis but belongs to one of the major ethnicities of Sabah (North Borneo). Secondly, even though the Bugis have been in Sabah since the 16th century, many of the Indonesian immigrants of Sabah today are also made up of a large number of Bugis immigrants from Sulawesi, Indonesia. What a coincidence that one of the major issues in Malaysia's political arena, presently, is how Sabah has a copious amount of immigrants - the federal government hasn't been very helpful with keeping immigrants at bay in Sabah. It's also not unheard of for immigrants to possess fake I.Cs as identity theft is just one of the methods of obtaining one. 

This said bad cop also made an indelible farewell bid when this snippet of conversation transpired:

Friend (obviously angered): What's your name?

Bad cop: K__________n.

Friend: Don't you have a surname?

Bad cop: No.

What's left to be said? Of the numerous problems Malaysians have had to endure, the citizens' sense of security is at least one thing that they should be guaranteed.