Pandanscape

Police Recruitment: Working on an Uphill Task?

A Chinese man on the beat is a rare sight in Malaysia. There are only 2,221 Chinese police personnel, constituting only 2.57% of the entire force. This prompted MCA Youth to embark on a campaign to encourage more Chinese to join the police force on September 27 last year. The campaign was launched by Party President Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting.

Recently, The Guardian met up with MCA Youth Chief YB Ong Tee Keat to find out more about the intake of the Chinese into the police field force.

It has been almost a year since MCA Youth launched a campaign to encourage more Chinese to join the police field force. How is the response from the Chinese community?

By and large the Chinese youth do express their interests in knowing more about the police career. That was clearly shown in the road-shows that we put up at various locations. I personally went round on the ground and I talked to some of them and was given to understand that the contemporary youth do not seem to have the kind of inhibitions of their forefathers or even their parents. They wish to know more about the police career, meaning the perks and the job prospects.

Job prospects are something very dear to their hearts. They wish to know if they stand a chance in the force. I intend to make it part of our career guidance series, which is going to take off very soon as that by itself is one of the careers very relevant to the youth.

What are some of the problems faced in your campaigns?

The general concerns raised by the people include the job prospects, both monetarily and the prospects of promotions. Many of them do not seem to have a clear idea of the job function. Their perception is that they need to grapple with crime, "Crime Buster" so to speak. Some of them even think that it is a high-risked career in the sense that you would need to deal with criminals. The youth of today wants to know more about the police force. They want some basic insights of what a police career entails.

At the same time there are parental inhibitions. Parents not well versed with a career in the force due to past unpleasant experiences discouraged their kids from joining the force.

The common negative perception that the Chinese were reluctant to enlist in the police and armed forces due to cultural values does not hold water. In Singapore, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Chinese constitutes the main backbone of the police force. That by itself nullifies the notion that the Chinese were not born to be policemen.

What are your reaction to claims that the Chinese are only interested to be ASPs and not police constables?

I think that is again a perception that was based on statistics. There were many occasions where those who applied for the job wanted to be recruited as police officers and not as constables. As I mentioned earlier, the Chinese by and large are looking for job prospects and this normally covers the perks as well as job advancements.

In this respect I feel that the current pay or salary scheme of the police force is less objective. In particular, we know very well that the Chinese are residing in towns and cities. Very few come from the rural areas. The prevailing cost of living in urban areas like KL is high. I think with the present salary scheme, a married man will find it difficult to make ends meet.

At the same time, the Chinese do not rely heavily on public services jobs and they have many choices to choose from. Some of them prefer to be self- employed. If you were to talk about the present salary scheme and qualifications, some of them prefer to be self-employed or work with the private sector than to be a police constable.

But for those who posses a university degree or diploma, if they choose to join the police force, they are normally really serious and committed in the sense that they really want to be a cop and they think that they can contribute something to society. We can¡¯t expect these people and I feel that it is unfair for them to apply for a constable position in the force. It does not make sense.

The force needs to have people from all races including those from different fields and profession. In fact on a few occasions I cited the example of fighting IT crimes to some of the officials in Bukit Aman. I pointed out that the police force needs to have experts who know what IT is all about in order to fight the crime. It is not every Tom, Dick and Harry from the police force that can do the job. We need experts.

But don¡¯t you think that once the public sees more Chinese ASPs, it would be a signal to the community that there are chances for them? Currently the public hardly sees any Chinese in the police force or even the armed forces and in the mindsets of the people, there are no job advancements in the force.

Correct. Whether we like it or not, the people will gauge whether a particular sector will accommodate all races or it is exclusively for one particular race. We need to disseminate the basic info about the career amongst the Chinese. Seeing is believing. We need to convince the people that a career in the force is meant for all and not meant for any particular race.

Most of the time, when we look for job promotions, we need to showcase some of the examples where people had made it to the very top. DCP Christopher Wan is one of the very few who had made it to the top and time again we had been using him as a role model. We certainly need to see more Chinese.

Of late there had been some complaints that many who applied to join the force were turned down despite the police assuring that they welcome more Chinese in the force?

Very unfortunately, I have came across cases where some aspiring candidates, after going through a series of tests, which I call the ¡®acid test¡¯ of their patience as well as determination were not accepted into the force. They still did not make it through due to reasons unknown to them or best known to only a certain quarters, the interviewers, perhaps.

I am viewing this problem with great concern and I keep track of all the cases reported to us. I intend to bring this up to the Bukit Aman Police Headquarters as well as the Police Royal Commission on the matter. If this is not addressed properly, then, at the end of the day, whatever effort that we had put in would be wasted and unproductive.

Some of these cases that were brought up to my attention, in fact, to me are the well deserving cases gauging from their qualifications as well as commitment. I have no reasons to doubt their preparedness to serve the police force and country.

We find that there are many deserving ones who were not given the opportunity to join the force. The problem is that there are no Chinese in the Interviewers Board. When I met the Deputy IGP, he shared my views that there should be a racially balanced representation in the Board.

After all the rhetoric and campaign, we cannot just sit back and keep quiet. We must follow through. I felt bad as we were the ones who urged the people to join the force and we couldn¡¯t help them. I am convinced that these people, those who had sent us e-mails and letters are the very ones very committed to join the force. There was even a guy who quit his job in Singapore to prepare for his police interview and I felt very bad for him when he did not get through the second round of interview.

Last year, you mentioned that MCA Youth would be launching a VCD to encourage the Chinese to join the police force. What is the current status of the VCD?

When we kicked off the Police Career Campaign last year, I did mention about producing a VCD both in English and Mandarin exclusively on the police career. We did that. In fact the production in both languages had been completed.

But unfortunately, I need to keep it in abeyance in view of some of the recent reported cases where the Chinese were not able to get into the police force. I need to address the problems first before I embark further on a nationwide campaign to encourage the Chinese to join the force.

Do you also have plans to launch campaigns to encourage more Chinese to join the public sector as well as the armed forces?

So far, this had been our party objective since its inception. The party had been spearheading this campaign within the community. On the other hand, we had also been making our stand very clear to the Government as well as the people that we need to have a more racially balanced representation in the civil service. But again, that is not sufficient as what is more important is that on the ground and in reality, people must perceive this as conducive for their own personal development. People need to see a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel.

Were there any positive results in the campaigns that MCA had been carrying out to encourage more Chinese to join the public sector?

There had been many positive signs. The Government has expressed its concern over the current scenario and had appealed to the public or through their good offices or through some mono-ethnic organisations such as the MCA to reach out to the people in order to attract people into the public service.

But of course we still have a long way to go. There are still many hurdles and it is up to us whether we should be more pro-active in addressing some of these problems at hand or that we should just leave it as it is. Of course it is always easier to sit back and bemoan on what is less palatable. I would prefer to have a proactive approach in correcting the current imbalances. ¨CLim Eng Leong, MCA Online-

Dengue Campaign  in Pandan Constituency
22 April 2005

  The Press conference was called by a Member of Parliament and a hospital over the dengue menace in the area. Soon, mosquitoes were buzzing at the venue and putting everyone ill at ease.

  Pandan MP Datuk Ong Tee Keat and Pantai Indah Hospital chief executive officer Raymond Chong were busy fielding questions from reporters and smacking the insects which were darting around them.           

  "They call me the clapping CEO since my staff hear claps coming from my office in the morning. It has become a routine when I enter my office to smash the buzzing insects", said Chong.           

  "When we opened the hospital two years ago, we did fogging once a month. Now it's done every week. The cause is the huge monsoon drain beside the hospital which is a breeding ground," he said, adding that they were taking measures to ensure patients admitted to the hospital did not contract dengue. 

  Chong said the hospital had been treating dengue patients for the past two years but never this alarming number until late last month. 

  The hospital has been seeing at least 100 patients with suspected dengue a day. At least 40 to 50 are confirmed cases mainly from Pandan Jaya.           

  The other cases are from Ampang Jaya and Cheras.           

  He said a special ward for dengue patients had been opened and more beds had been ordered.  There are now 27 dengue patients at the hospital with a 19-year-old student in critical condition. Today, another 30 people were examined and were confirmed to be dengue cases. 

Expressing concern, Ong said Pandan Jaya was one of the worst-hit areas, with many residents especially in flats in Block L32 and L33 admitted to hospitals. 

The poorly-designed drainage system surrounding the 18 blocks of flats which accommodate 8,000 people is said to be the cause of the rise in dengue cases.  

 "We cannot do much as water will always be stagnant in the drains", he said after visiting dengue patients.           

  He said Pantai Indah Hospital had agreed to provide free health checks for dengue, including free blood tests at its emergency department every day from 9am to noon. 

  Door-to-door checks and fumigation of mosquito breeding grounds will be carried out. 

  The Petaling Jaya Municipal council today warned developers of court action if their constructions sites are repeatedly found to be breeding grounds for mosquitoes. 

  Council president Datuk Ahmad Tarmizi Puteh said the RM500 fine imposed on developers had failed to deter them from keeping the sites free of mosquito breeding ground. 

  Kuala Lumpur City Hall has stepped up fogging following a drastic rise in the number of dengue cases. 

Outline of Event:

07/01/2005 Datuk Ong Tee Keat visited Flats Block L32-L33 where many residents admitted to hospitals. Residents showed to Datuk Ong the poorly-designed drainage system around the area.

16/01/2005

Datuk Ong Tee Keat  visted dengue patients at Pantai Indah hospital to have first hand information of the medical treatment applied to patients.

25.01.2005

 A campaign, namely, "Dengue ---Community Care Program" was initiated by YB Datuk Ong Tee Keat in cooperation with Pantai Indah Hospital, Lions Club of K.L. Metropolitan, Community Emergency Squad and Malaysia Volunteer Fire& Rescue Association to create the public awareness of the danger of  Dengue.

A BRIDGE TOO FAR
18 Jun 2004

It was an immigrant labour enclave that was prohibitive to the locals until year 2000 when the then MP for Ampang Jaya , Datuk Ong Tee Keat stepped in with a series of proactive actions aimed at bringing to the Pandan Indah Commercial Park a new lease of life.

Prior to 1998, the area was a garbage dump-turn-slum. But the inception of housing development did not change the scenario drastically as the economy was then badly hit by the economic crisis.

Come August 2002, a pro-tem committee of Pandan Indah Commercial Park Owners association broke the long silence by initiating the first ever meeting with Datuk Ong.

Much to their surprise, the MP had proactively answered to their plea of bringing a new lease of life to the ghost-town-like commercial park. Soon after the dialog, Datuk Ong honored his words when drastic action was taken against dozens of illegal immigrant labor residing in the area. He was proven right in initiating the first move as the illegal immigrants had long been casting a negative image to the area.

His effort did not simply end with such a move. But little did the pro-tem committee expect that the MP was then on the threshold of building a bridge linking the former ghost town to the presently booming Pandan Mewah that is separated from the former by a huge monsoon drain.

The RM120,000 worth bridge became a reality when it was officially launched by Datuk Ong in his new capacity as the MP for Pandan shortly after the general election. ¡° Apparently he was totally unprepared to exploit the project for his re-election,¡± says one of the community members when approached by the media.

It is expected that the bridge would bring the densely populated Pandan Mewah community closer to the commercial park. Perhaps this is a feasible way of bringing liveliness to the park after such a long span of time. The new Pandan Mewah specialist hospital  and the new schools are due to be open in due course, thus making the vicinity more livelier than ever before.

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