Smartphones must be banned, not among schoolchildren, but our policemen By Lokman Mustafa QUICK TAKE: Forget schoolchildren. The use of handphones or rather smartphones, should more appropriately be banned among police officers at detention facilities or lockups. For all we know, some trigger-happy policemen might shoot photos or videos of detainees in humiliating situations before happily sharing them on Facebook, WhatsApp or YouTube. In the end, the police will be forced to investigate how certain video clips have entered the public domain when in fact, their callous officers are solely to be blamed. Ten years ago, on Nov 25, The Star reported a video footage showing a woman in uniform instructing a Chinese-looking naked lady to do ear squats which caused an uproar after it was made public. It prompted the police to start investigations and lodge a report of their own. The 70-second clip showed the woman standing naked in a room with some lockers to her right. The woman in uniform can be heard telling the naked woman in Bahasa Malaysia to pull her ears, squat and stand up. The footage was believed to have been taken using a mobile phone and had been widely circulated through the multimedia messaging service (MMS) as there were no smartphones back then. Fearing backlash from the government of China, then Malaysias home minister, Tan Sri Azmi Khalid, officially apologised in an effort to salvage the countrys reputation as a tourist destination among Chinese nationals. Azmi was quoted saying, “These are outside our control, actually, but we apologise, because we dont like to see these things happen.” Subsequently, it was later revealed to a shocked nation that the woman was in fact a Malay. Recently on Jan 22, footage of a lead vocalist for Malay rock outfit Slam singing while in handcuffs became viral. Zamani Ibrahim, 42, was held for drug abuse in Taman Keramat before taken to a police station. Whilst there, he was requested to sing one of his popular songs “Gerimis Mengundang” to some policemen. Zamani has since been dubbed a “Jailhouse Rocker”. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, however, was not amused when the matter came to his attention. “We will investigate those who shot this video while Zamani was handcuffed and stern action will be taken,” he said on Twitter. In an interview with The Star (Jan 24), Zamani, who was out on bail, denied being bullied or forced to sing while in police custody. He said that he gladly sang for the police officers after they told him they were fans of Slam. The clip, however, was believed to be shared by the spouse of one of the officers. Two policemen who requested the popular 90’s crooner to belt out a number have also been removed. In addition, the case is investigated under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act under which “a person commits an offence if he or she posts any content that is either indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with the intention to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person”. So obviously, smartphones are a bane for our men in blue overseeing the lockup, especially those indifferent to the detainees’ plight. A ban could on the cards perhaps, Mr IGP? - See more at: theantdaily/Main/Smartphones-must-be-banned-not-among-schoolchildren-but-our-policemen#sthash.K4TEkNFe.dpuf
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 15:45:14 +0000
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