Are Public Places in Malaysia Safe Anymore?

Apart from a high probability of becoming the victim of traffic accident or daylight robbers, it appears that you could be the victim of the local police.

Even though this woman had a genuine China passport and is married to a Malaysian the police held her for five days before the Immigration authorities could verify her passport.


It appears that the Tourism Ministry’s worry about the fall in visitors from China may be based on wrong premises.

Do you believe a few cases of cheating can compare to the grave injustice meted out to that poor Chinese woman? I am sure her story about being arrested and detained by the police will negate all the efforts by the Tourism Ministry to get more Chinese tourists here.

What are the current laws on such detention? To me this kind of unfortunate incident could be prevented if the woman had been allowed to contact her husband or a lawyer immediately after arrest.

The lawyer should then be allowed to post bail and the suspect released into his charge while the police send the passport for verification.

If the passport is false, the lawyer will be required to return the person to the police. If this case is true, it reflects very poorly on our system that follows the UK principle of “Innocent until Proven Guilty.”

This is the kind of practice that gives the authorities a bad name.

photo: http://www.local.co.il/ramat-gan/images/mainpage/handcuffed.jpg