Police must not be turned into a voting bloc

The public threats made by a segment of the police which is opposed to the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) are rightly condemned by all right-minded Malaysians. What interests me now is the one which says that if the IPCMC is set up by the National Front government, the police would vote for the Opposition.

It means that all this while, the police has been voting for the National Front. But is it true that all policemen have been voting for the National Front en bloc or en masse? My own observation is that they are always policemen who privately support opposition parties in elections as individual citizens.

As a matter of principle, all policemen are entitled to vote with secret ballots as individual citizens in general or by-elections. I think any attempt on the part of some top police officers to turn the entire institution of police into a single, monolithic, undifferentiated and collective voting bloc is not only a threat to civilian rule ( like the Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia or ABRI in Sukarno's Indonesia) but also a blatant insult to thousands of their fellow policemen who may be supporters for the National Front, PAS, KeADILan or DAP in elections in the past.

I think no policemen must be duped into joining a single, monolithic, undifferentiated and collective voting bloc in general or by-elections as pawns in the high-level power struggles among ruling elites. Every policemen must think of himself or herself as human beings, responsbile parents or children and private citizens when they cast their votes.