The former Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor, who began his two months jail sentence yesterday (30 April 01), after losing his appeal, showed how badly the police treat those it arrests.  No one talks about it, but in every police force in the world third degree methods on suspects to extract information.  That the Malaysian Police does is now in no doubt.  If the Inspector-General of Police can take the law into his own hands and beat up the just detained deputy prime minister into a pulp, then what guarantee is there that those lower down do not?  No one thought it unusual at the time that Tan Sri Rahim could tell the world Dato' Seri Anwar is well when he knew he was not. It took a Royal Commission of Inquiry to elicit the admission he lied, that he did beat up the former deputy  prime minister.  The infamous black eye, which highlights not so much Dato' Seri Anwar's ill-treatment after arrest as police arrogance.

Lawyers tell me the punishment is too heavy.  When a man admits guilt, he gets one third off.  He should have been sentenced only to about a month.  But the Public Prosecutor was wrong to have charged him with a simple assault.  It was not simple.  When the IGP assaults a detainee who is handcuffed and blindfolded, it is no more simple assault.  It does not matter if he was carrying orders.  The Nurenburg Trials established the principle that a subordinate will pay the full penalty if he obeys an order which breaks the law.  But he is head of the police force, and he took it upon himself to beat up the man.  He had, besides, no business to be where he was that fateful night.

Saying that Dato' Seri Anwar called him a "pig" is neither here nor there.  It is fair to assume that if Tan Sri Rahim had left the arresting officer to do his job, and let detention procedures follow, Dato' Seri Anwar would not have called him a "pig".  He invited the retort, if such a retort was made.  Tan Sri Rahim told so many lies to mask the truth, that one must, as a matter of course, disbelieve what he said in his defence.  He had no business to be where he was, and he deserved what reaction he got from the prisoner as he got.

In mitigation, his counsel said he had contributed so much to the nation that a custodial sentence is too much; besides, he would lose his pension.  He had served the country well, and this moment of abberration would cost him much and would worsen with a prison sentence.  Let us take  this appeal on its head.  If this argument had been accepted, would it not be fair to say that how Dato' Seri Anwar is treated so far is a traversity of that mitigation. He held high office, contributed much to the nation, as the Prime Minister himself have testified in years past before, like Tan Sri Rahim Noor, he lost his head.

Why then is the man treated like a leper, preventing him from getting the medical treatment he so desperately needs, turning it into a political confrontation.  Why is he not on bail for what is a baillable offence, as his alleged co-conspirator was, pending an appeal.  Why has not the grounds of judgement in the second Anwar trial been released months after conviction.  This prevents him from appealing to the Court of Appeal.  Besides, if a judge does not give his grounds for the conviction within six weeks, he could be brought before a tribunal and removed from office, as the Constitution provides.  The chief justice should look into this.

One unintended consequence of the Rahim Noor assault is the widespread belief that the ISA is tainted law in the process of democracy.  There is a case for preventive detention, but it is within narrow well-defined limits when the country is under threat from outside.  No one questioned its use during the Emergency and in the years that followed when the country was under threat.  But when it is used in peace time and wholesale arrests made, it is a matter of time before the people rebel against it.  The infamous black eye provided that spark in Malaysia.

The Rahim Noor affair would throw out another confrontational claim of the government:  that Dato' Seri Anwar is given special treatment.  Where would Tan Sri Rahim be lodged?  With the ordinary prisoner, or in a special cell?  In a special cell, of course!  Why in a special cell, as Dato' Seri Anwar is? Because the prisons regulations provides for it.  It is the government that raised this. If Tan Sri Rahim is not in the general cell with prisoners who could assault him as he did the former deputy prime minister, the government loses again.  Especially, we would know soon where and how he is treated in prison.  If it is not as the home minister says Dato' Seri Anwar should be, it would have some explaining to do.  The government cannot gain kudos for putting Tan Sri Rahim in jail, He was too softly treated.  When all is said and done, Tan Sri Rahim in jail is yet another victory in his confrontation with his nemesis and former protege, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed.

M.G.G. Pillai
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