Why go after the messenger?

Published on: Sunday, January 24, 2021

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REFERENCE is made to the recent beer-drinking session at a Sabah quarantine centre involving those suspected of having the Covid-19 virus.

What baffled me was the warning by the Sabah Commissioner of Police Datuk Hazani Ghazali, that police would not only investigate those involved in the “beer party” but also those who spread videos of the incident.

Such a warning by a defender of the law is surprising. In fact, the CP should welcome anyone bringing these incidents into the public domain, instead of implying that they were wrong in passing it around.

So what if it reflected badly on the State Health Department and others entrusted with ensuring that the spread of the Covid-19 infection is curtailed.

Those who spread the videos were alerting that the SOP set by the Health Ministry was not being followed in some of the quarantine centres.

There have also been complaints that parents were forced to cough up RM1,000 just because their children were caught not following SOP on social distancing inside food and beverage outlets, when it should be the operators of these joints that should be held responsible.

With many people on reduced pay or having lost their jobs, I sympathise with those who had to part with RM1,000 which could be the equivalent of a family’s grocery bill for three months.

Going after the messengers also gives the perception that the police would rather that the beer drinking incident did not become public knowledge, which I don’t think is the case.

Already we had a situation where in Sarawak, a 16-year-old girl was raped in a police lock-up and questions being asked whether police personnel themselves are aware of the law concerning the detention of minors.

Hence, I believe the Sabah CP may have been misquoted when he was reported to have said that those who spread the beer video would be investigated as well.

I fail to see under what section of the law that action could be taken against them plus the fact that the video was not doctored or fake news. A national newspaper even uploaded the video in its website. So is this paper also under investigation?

Puzzled

- We were equally surprised by the CP’s statement. Our reporter Stefyanie WhatsApp the CP to clarify as to what he could have actually meant but did not get any response. – Ed.