Skip to main
Malaysiakini logo

Yoursay: Failure of cops to stop Seafield violence catastrophic

This article is 5 years old

YOURSAY | ‘If only the Subang Jaya police had acted early to arrest the gangsters...’

Police to check if riot control SOP followed during Seafield temple incident

Coroner: If cops had acted, there would be no fires nor firefighters

After coroner's damning verdict, Zaid wants gov't to probe police's inaction

Don’t Just Talk: Let this tragic death be a lesson to everyone that it is easy to start a fire by instigation, or in this instance, a developer with interest on the piece of land on which a Hindu temple is located, and engaged their lawyer to settle the issue.

The lawyer allegedly paid a group of Malays to desecrate the Hindu temple while the devotees were praying, thinking that might is right.

When the riot broke out between the Indians Malaysians who were defending their temple and the vandals, the police failed miserably in their role to bring the situation back to normal, thus resulting in the tragic death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim.

As usual, some selfish politicians tried to add fuel to the fire by claiming that it was a racial clash.

From this tragic incident, inspector-general of police Abdul Hamid Bador should act fast and come down very hard on those selfish, corrupted politicians who stir racial problems and hoping for an early general election.

Tiger Fang: Only now does Abdul Hamid want to check if the police’s standard operating procedure (SOP) was followed.

Every fool could have told you that the police were standing around watching the riot.

Start with the Subang Jaya police chief. Sack him and don’t just transfer him to another town if he is incompetent.

Athena: Mr IGP, now and numerous times before, we have noticed police inaction when it was warranted.

But as far as this incident goes, if we didn't have a group of rabid rabble-rousers who ran amok and trespassed the temple, none of these unfortunate events would have occurred. That much is pretty clear.

Steven Ong: It's hard not wanting to speculate when acts that should be done are not done and unfortunately a life was lost.

Were the police on duty told not to interfere on purpose? Was there a plan when the police on duty did not intervene?

I am saying this because in other cases, the police act immediately, especially against those who are deemed to have insulted a religion.

Guuunner: Why were the police and the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) just standing there watching Adib beaten to death?

This doesn’t make sense. Former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim is right in calling for an investigation.

The Wakandan: The rioters who burned the cars must be fearsome people so much so that the police were too afraid to take any action against them.

As for the FRU standing there watching the burning, they were like spectators watching Rome being burnt to the ground, and alas could not do anything to stop it.

That was understandable because it was a delicate situation. They allowed the vehicles to burn but would not interfere, probably not wanting to worsen the situation. It is not an easy job for the FRU.

In retrospect, how we wished for them to just charge at the rioters, maybe threw in some tear gas canisters, or sprayed them with the water cannon, or perhaps have a good fight with them and see how it could have been.

Odysseus: Just standing around waiting for instruction is equally bad. For normal humans, we would have tried to stop a fight and not standing around and do nothing.

I wonder if any one of them feels guilty for their inaction. Well, they can just blame the boss for not giving the instruction.

Anonymous 2485381503371480: Clearly there must be an inquiry into police inaction. If heads must roll and standard operating procedures need to change, then let it be.

But the police cannot shirk their irresponsibility here just because the police chief is uncontactable.

Shovelnose: I hope they learn from the unfortunate event that could have been prevented, that the chain of command was woefully ineffective.

The missing-in-action and incommunicado Subang Jaya police chief has a lot to answer for.

Anonymous 2401191456463140: All NGOs should now train their fingers at the then Subang Jaya police chief.

Indeed, where was he when he is needed most at that time?

Anonymous_cdb4fb5d: If only the Subang Jaya police had acted early to arrest the gangsters who illegally entered the temple at 1am in the morning.

They ignored the emergency calls from the temple to help. Was it prearranged with the developer iCity to look the other way so that the gangsters can intimidate the temple committee?

Anonymous_gem49: As the case may be, police need to track down the individuals involved in beating Adib and causing his death.

The police will also need to track down the instigators of the whole sorry episode.

Newday: SOPs are very dangerous things when non-standard incidences happen.


The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.