Police, leave them people alone?!

Naalu Policeum Nalla Irundha Oorum (4 Policemen and a peaceful town, Tamil; 2015)

Directed by N. J. Srikrishna

This full-length comedy came and went without creating much of a storm. Naturally, it received little rave review. All the actors were very green, except for Yogi Babu, who did not play a vital role here, anyway.

The story is a comedy of errors, poking fun at how the police's assertion of their importance screws up the peace of an already peaceful village.

The small township of Porpandhal is so peaceful that it has received Best Village awards for years. There is no crime, and the police station sees no need to open on Sunday. The four policemen there lead cushy lives, working from 9 to 5 and playing board games all day.

The police HQ takes notice. It plans to shut down the station and transfer its staff to Ramnath, an area notorious for serious crimes. The policemen panic. They try to justify their presence by creating petty issues here and there.

Little did they expect what would finally pander with their little tweaking. They send out a petty thief to steal the village committee's collection monies, making the police appear as heroes when they retrieve the loot later. They hoped this would prevent the police station from closing and allow them to maintain their leisurely lives.

Unfortunately. the money that the thief stole got burnt in a fire. The committee chairman accuses the shopkeeper whose shop was razed by fire as the thief and of lying by purposely burning down his shop to hide evidence.

When the police tried to intervene by making the temple priests as mediators, a stash of dirty magazines was found planted in the temple grounds instead, angering the temple committee members. They, too, go ballistic against the rest of the villagers.

At the end of the day, the once exemplary peaceful village now becomes a war zone. Everyone ends up in arms against one another. The policemen, though, get their wishes fulfilled. They stay put.

Everyone is trying to prove their worth. A doctor is worth his degree only if people fall sick. A mechanic will be out of a job if everyone's vehicle is maintenance-free and immune from breakdowns. In the same way, lawyers will be jobless if no one runs afoul of the law. Lawyers may also turn a non-issue into a national crisis; leave it to them. The same goes for the police, too; so much power and nowhere to flaunt it can be pretty intimidating.

Respect is earned. People are free to respect each other if they think their existence is respected. Try greeting a random guy on the street. Invariably, he would reciprocate your salutations unless he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia or believes there is a catch.

The moment the other party thinks that he is taken for a fool and feels cheated or discriminated against, that is when all human decencies end. The experiment was done by a third-grade school teacher, Jane Elliott, in 1968 after Martin Luther King's assassination highlighted this effect. She wanted to show how it felt to be discriminated against. The all-white class was divided into two groups- the blue-eyed and the brown-eyed. The blue-eyed students were given preferential treatment and compliments. The experiment was reversed but only lasted two days. From the short experiment, she found how easily people deemed 'inferior' fitted into the role so quickly and saw how fast the mild-mannered students in the 'superior' 'group became devils.

The lesson learnt here is that everything is honky dory when each other's liberty is respected. He flips when one's position is threatened or feels he is taken for a pushover. The suppressed reptilian mind awakens, and like Pandora's Box, evil thoughts and actions will be unleashed. All shields will be up to ward off anything that resembles hostility. The societal-imposed social inhibitions go out of the window!

May not! The Wokes and BLM sympathisers seem to scream from the depths of their lungs to de-fund the police. They argue that having a police squad is damaging to the existence of the minorities in the country. Alternative? Let looters have a field day, businesses finding it not cost-effective to apprehend or persecute offenders with minor thefts or simply close their retail stores and opt for online businesses only. 

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As long as law is respected...

Escape from Mogadishu (Korean; 2021)
Director: Ryoo Seung-wan

We go to bed at night knowing jolly well that we will get a good night's sleep. We can get up the next day to go to work, self-assured that our workplace will still be standing. We queue at the checkout counter to pay for our goods because it is the civil thing to do. We do not go around breaking into premises because we know that the long arms of the law will finally catch up with us.

This peace of mind is what we, as a society, gave up for law and order. The powers-that-be promised to care for us, and we, in return, would sacrifice some of our liberty to suppress our inner desires to do what we wanted. When the government loses its grip on power, all hell breaks loose. The evil side of mankind surfaces. The respect for law takes a backseat, decorum disappears, and mayhem will ensue. All special privileges vanish into thin air. The law of the jungle takes over where the rule of law fails.

The diplomats of two warring nations of the Korean peninsula, North and South Korea, found this out the hard way. Somalia in 1991 was in turmoil as President Barre's government was overthrown by General Aidid's rebels. It was a time when the Koreas were still trying to gain entry into the U.N. (This is news to me! Even though Malaysia was already in U.N. since 1957, the Koreas had been struggling to get in since 1949. Then the Korean War came, and the Soviet Union opposed South Korea's entry. Since 1973, North Korea has become a U.N. observer.)

The Koreas were frantic trying to gain votes from African countries for U.N. entries. They were sabotaging each other for this purpose. The level of animosity reached a feverish pitch until Somalia fell into anarchy and the rebels destroyed the North Korean embassy staff scurrying for refuge. Against much hesitation, the South Koreans gave humanitarian support and together, they tried to escape from Mogadishu as the hostile rebel troop terrorised the country. After all the fight for survival, they go separate ways acting as mortal enemies. At the height of desperation to stay alive in Mogadishu, they covered each other's backs and grew to like each other.

'Escape from Mogadishu' is a gripping action movie with high suspense and edge-of-the-seat value. It is based on actual events but with a liberal sprinkle of artistic liberty. If 'Black Hawk Down' was America's viewpoint of the Somalia situation, this film's South Korea's version. Maybe one day, we will get a Somalian version of the debacle.

(N.B. Perhaps Malaysians should give a pat on themselves. Being a young democracy that came into existence as an independent third-world nation 65 years ago, it did specific earth-shattering things to its government without much turmoil. It booted out a corrupt government through a peaceful election. It further sent its ex-Prime Minister to jail for corruption and may send more for the same.)

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So much for 'rule of law'!

420 IPC (Hindi; 2021)

Director: Manish Gupta

So that is how it is. Everybody claims to be adhering to the rule of law. For a simpleton like me, that sounds like sound advice. The law is there to protect the little people against the tyranny of the deep-pocketed. I was nurtured to believe that the Truth will always prevail in the end. Lady Justice is supposedly blind to coercion, they say. As I grew older, I realised that all these are just bunkum. 

The people who frequently invoke the phrases 'rule of law' and 'by the book' do not mean what they say. What they actually mean is that they have masterminded the nooks, corners and loopholes in the legal system that they can literally get away with murder. They can legitimately proclaim that they can legally needle themselves away from being caught in a comprising position. They have got all their sides, frontal and posterior, all concealed.

When and if ever they are queried, they have the fortitude to use the same law used to persecute them to shield themselves instead. No matter how hard truth tries to prevail, nothing can challenge the best brain that wealth can purchase. The way law can be interpreted as much as the defender can afford to pay. Top dollars can buy top lawyers. 

Law is written, and its execution is as good as the words and nuances it is written. Words can be manipulated. The first teachers of this art were the sophists. Greek philosophers like Socrates and Plato did not have any nice things to say about them. They were viewed as prostituting themselves by selling the art of speaking and providing wisdom to convince the impossible. They must be the first to have sold ice to the Eskimos.  

This is an engaging film about a seemingly small-scaled chartered accountant, Bansi Keswani, who is initially arrested when his client is caught for money laundering. He is discharged, but Bansi is re-arrested for stealing some cheques two months later. This time around, he has to face the whole brunt of the law. Why would an intelligent accountant do something so amateurish like stealing cheques and falsifying the issuer's signature in such a novice way? The defence digs deep into his sleeves and all roads plainly seem to lead Bansi to a lengthy jail term.

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Law is maintained only as long as it is respected.

I always wondered what is it that maintains order in our lives. What ensures total silence in the cinema when the movie is starting? What is it that assures that the viewers in an art gallery do not go around touching their exhibits with their dirty stubby fingers? What forces a patient to pay at a clinic after a consultation and the customer settle his bill after enjoying (or hating) his meal? They can jolly well just scoot off, now that their mission is accomplished. 

Well, it can happen with the occasional client who refuses to pay, but that is not the norm. Perhaps he is dissatisfied with the service or just because he can. Rather than creating a scene and draw unwanted publicity, the service provider would probably write it off as miscellaneous loss of doing business. To the rest, they know the long arm of the law would get them. They know that as the majority support orderly running of life transactions, they would not garner support against a sea of law-abiding supporters no matter how justified the lawbreaker can be with his wrongdoings. 

The balance will be tipped when the majority starts distrusting the institutions that maintain law and order. Anarchy prevails when the majority begins disrespecting the law. Law must be just and seen to be fair. Public perception is all to it. People hold law enforcement to high esteem not because they are scared of the law, they simply respect too much. 

Ask the British East India Company and the British Empire. They would tell you how a puny force managed to overpower and bring down a nation of many millions over - too much respect given to authority.

Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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Policing the police?

Disgruntled expression by citizens after the second wave of 

COVID linked to free movement of politicians during the 

recent Sabah state election. This banner prompted the cops

to spring to investigate the maker of this banner.

The law (specifically the police) is supposed to serve and protect the public. They are there to maintain law and order so that the general public can perform their society-sanctioned duties - earning an honest living and caring as well as providing for the loved ones. 

Of late, these duties (by the police) have been questioned. Are they there to protect the laypeople? Is their presence purely to serve? But to serve whom? Who are their masters?

We all know that the BLM movement that stemmed from policemen's mishandling of black suspect is nothing more than a brain-child of self-serving parties trying to court anarchy to push forward their agendas. One thing led to another. Compilations of previous police brutalities over the years soon instigated people to question whether we need a police force at all. Then, the scream for defunding the police started becoming louder. Imagine a society without the men in blue to police law, order and justice. But do they mete justice? Apparently not.

Closer to home, we repeatedly see enthusiastic men-in-uniform with the excitement of a kid with a candy working around the clock, chasing all avenues to nail culprits who defamed people of stature and in pursuing microscopic shreds of evidence as the situation warrants. Apparently, their excitement gets doused when it comes to nailing down selected kidnappers.

But then...

The world is not a rose garden. There are many wicked people around. They use the evil that lurks within the crypt of their hidden mind to fulfil their hedonistic desire or shortcuts to commit the society-abhorred deadly sins. The laypeople cannot take be empowered to take power to protect themselves in times of adversity. 

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It will take a full turn!

U-Turn (Tamil, 2018)

We think that rules only apply to others. We simply break the rules without batting our eyelids. We want the lawmakers to just close one eye, give leniency or forgive with a slap on the wrist. Somehow when the same law is broken by others, we are quick to throw the full might of book at them.

How many times have we seen drunk driving and the sequelae of such acts? How often have we seen friends cajoling their buddies to have 'one more for the road'? This must be what is meant by the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

This film is a sort of drama with a social message - 'Don't take things for granted!' It is a public service announcement to remind us that every single, seemingly useless regulation means something in the long run. 

Many road users take an illegal U-turns atop a flyover by moving the laid-out concrete slabs. After making the intended turn, they do not re-adjust the concrete layout. Many accidents had happened there and an intern journalist, Rachana (Samantha Akkineni), decide to run a cover story on that. She pays a homeless guy to note the plate number of vehicles taking U-turns on the flyover. With her contact at the Road Transport Department, he gets the whereabouts of the vehicle owners. She then interviews them. She goes to the apartment of her first contact but fails. The next thing she finds out is that she is a suspect of the murder of the first contact. Soon she realises that all the persons in her list of offenders have all died recently. And their cause of death was suicide, all of them!

Things get complicated when the superior officers pressure their subordinates to close the case, and Rachana has no means to prove her innocence. Luckily, there is a sympathetic police officer who believes her. Together they try to scale up to the limits of the paranormal to get to the root of the problem.

An entertaining flick with a message.

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With technology, things become complicated.

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

#Scenario 1: At the edge of Sahara Desert, in front of a small district hospital.  After a whole month of travelling on camel backs in a convoy with no untoward incidents, a Bedouin lady just collapsed much to the excitement of the entire village. Long story short, the lady had a ruptured tubal pregnancy, underwent a laparotomy and went back home smiling.

#Scenario 2: FG was draughted to help out in a small town at the edge of the country when a cholera epidemic hit the state. After attending to the needs of the ever-escalating number of victims, it was snooze time. At an unearthly hour of 3 am, the ethereal time between slumber and wakefulness, the phone rang off the hook. A desperate sounding staff nurse was frantically looking for helping hand. A parturient mother had been laboriously trying to expel her offspring since midnight but in vain. The elusive endpoint appeared so near yet so far. Hearing that a new young doctor from the town of big lights had some obstetric experience, I was summoned.
After assessing the situation, weighing between a 2-hour journey to the nearest tertiary facility and the limited resources, FG delivered the baby via obstetric forceps, panting and sweating under the collar.
Everything went well. To the sounds of a hearty cry of a healthy newborn, FG walked out feeling like a superhero with his imagining cape flying to the morning breeze to the nod of the approving hospital staff!

That was the scene in superheroes' movies back in the days. Life was simple, uncertainties in life few and hurdles were hardly hurdles. The world would be threatened by a megalomaniac mad scientist who wants to rule the world; catastrophe would ensue and superhero would save the day. Mission accomplished, everybody happy. With the increasing complexity of criminal activities, the creativity of destructive forces, crime busting is not like it is how it used to be.

Logically, in the medical field where improved medical technology should translate to more happy faces and satisfied patients. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Even, in the superhero business, it is pretty much the same. People want perfection, no collateral damage and the onus to be accountable to adverse outcomes.

This would be the basis of this 2016 eagerly awaited blockbuster. With the increasing public casualties and public property destruction, the wings of the super heroes' league are planned to be clipped. The booboo at Wakanda is the last straw. As the UN is about to pass a ruling to restrain the powers of Avengers, the superhero is required to consent for the allegiance. That is where the problem starts. Captain America refuses to sign the accord while Stark is all for it. Therein, starts the confrontation. The duel becomes more intense after the UN office in Vienna is bombed and Captain America's childhood, Bucky Barnes, is accused of being the bomber.

Even though there are too many action heroes strutting their stuff in gravity defying feats and lighting speeds, there is no confusion in the story or the case of too many meaningless displays of pyrotechnics. We have Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Falcon, Rhodes, Vision, Clint, Scarlett Witch and Black Panther while Ant Man and Spider Man make special appearances.

In the immortal words of Spidey, "With great powers come big responsibility." Life in high places is no walk in the park or a seat in a pleasure cruise. It also has its ups and downs.