If you have been a victim of crime in Malaysia, you will appreciate what I mean when I say that victims of crime can spend hours making a police report. In some cases, victims are given the run-around and sent from one police pondok to another.
When making the report, the policeman on duty will ensure that the events are accurately recorded. After taking much time and energy lodging the report, why retract it?
This is what happened on 2 April, when we were told that steamboat restaurant owner, Kwan Pei Chong. had retracted the police report against businessman, Tan Wai Khan, who had slapped customers in Kwan’s resturant, intimidated staff and wrecked his property. Why was this retraction allowed to happen?
Had Tan paid him compensation?
Or as some people have suggested, had Kwan been threatened that if he continued with the case, his family and business would be at risk?
Which is it?
Tan should realise that sorry is no cure. He should he slapped with the most severest form of punishment.
Will this arrogant and violent datuk and his accomplice escape punishment? Will the victims of the violent datuk, such as the customers who were slapped, the staff who were threatened and subject to abuse, and the restaurant owner who suffered loss of business and broken items in his restaurant be able to receive justice?
Kwan is not the first to retract his police report. A few years ago, a politician who was in a car, late at night, with an underage girl, escaped justice when his underage victim retracted her police report about her alleged molestation.
There are other cases of police reports being retracted when the perpetrator has links to the underworld.
In most cases, the victims of these acts of violence, including rape, will not receive justice. In some cases, the delay in investigating the cases, or the delay in the confirmation of a court date, or lawyers being absent on the date of the trial, that prompts many victims to shuna public hearing, because of the shame, the guilt and the burden of waiting for justice.
So, in the steamboat owner’s case, what is the real reason for retracting the report?
Malaysians reacted with outrage at a video of Tan slapping customers in the restaurant. They wanted him to be punished for his uncontrollable violence. They were pleased with the swift police work in apprehending Tan and his friend, two days after the alleged assault.
Now that the police report has been retracted, how can we expect justice to be served to the victims of the assault? Why should arrogant individuals like Tan, be allowed to get away with thuggery? What example does it set for others?
As far as most of us are aware, no-one is allowed to retract a police report, but this terrible practice happens on a regular basis in Malaysia. Why?
Singapore does not allow police reports to be retracted. Does retracting a police report invalidate an insurance claim? Will the insurance prosecute the restaurateur for making a fraudulent claim?
With the retraction, Malaysians will suspect that corruption is at play. It does not leave them with any confidence in the judicial system or law enforcement, if police reports are allowed to be retracted at someone’s whim and fancy.
Last January, Tan was smartened-up to look the part for his public apology. He read out the typed script in halting Malay and said sorry to the victims, and to Malaysians, for his irrational and drunken behaviour.
Malaysians were livid because Tan was apparently a Datuk. He was livid that a couple had asked him to lower his voice as he was disturbing other diners.
We are also fed-up with the recent spate of titled people abusing others, jumping the queue, demanding special treatment, and when they are challenged, turning violent.
In his apology, Tan admitted that his ego was bruised. Despite his claims that he should have known better as he was an older person, most Malaysians suspect that as a titled individual, he probably did not imagine others would have the temerity to question his loutish behaviour.
Retracting the police report does not leave Malaysians confident with the system. The police had done admirable work in tracing Tan and his alleged accomplices within two days of the assault. Think of the police time, manpower and resources that have been wasted.
When a police report is retracted, more questions are left unanswered. We saw how Tan’s alleged accomplices arrived within minutes of being summoned. Does the restaurant owner fear repercussions if he continued with his case?
Does the restaurant owner fear the titled person? Arrogant people like Tan probably feel ‘protected’ by their titles? Tan has caused acute embarrassment to the Sultan who bestowed the title. Why is he still a ‘datuk’? Malaysians are shocked by the quality of recent ‘datuks’.
When a victim of an alleged assault retracts his earlier police report against the perpetrator, damage is inflicted. The police probably feel that their effort has gone to waste. The other victims, like the young couple who were slapped and the restaurant staff who were intimidated, will feel let down. Other Malaysians will feel that violent people appear to get away with crimes.
Retracting police reports should be made a crime. It wastes both police and the court’s time.
Perhaps, if those who retract their reports are brought to trial and punished, we may know why the retractions were made, if corruption had a hand in the retraction, or if threats had been made.
Malaysians want to have confidence in the judicial system and the police force. If we are to trust the system, those who change their minds, should also face the full force of the law. We also need a brave magistrate to say he will continue with the case, even though the police report has been retracted.
It is not altogether impossible to get to the bottom of Steamboatgate.
As with anything Chinese, especially Malaysian “Chinese”, a “Chinese” race no other Chinese elsewhere understand or want to, you follow the money.
You can quite safely assume money must have changed hands in Steamboat Saga. For Malaysian “Chinese”, money talks and talks as loud as our “Chinese” talk – and that’s fcuking loud and noisy nearly all the time. Our “Chinese” are mostly of peasant, coolie, mine-digging stock and have no breeding, no culture, no real education, hence, have no “class” (you too, Hannah, the glorified kway teow artist!).
Our “Chinese” are really unique, and even the Chinese elsewhere who were coolies, peasants, mine-diggers know that – the awful Chinese tourists from elsewhere that descended upon Malaysia and behaved like the same version of our peasants, coolies, and mine-digger descendants have in just a few years became totally “upmarket” while our monkeys remain the exact same as their forefathers when they set foot in this miserable land.
I would place my first bet on money being passed on to Mr Steamboat. No “Chinese” can move or can be moved unless money’s errr moved him in whatever direction intended by the creature parting with the money. It won’t do any business any good if the proprietor cannot provide safety for the customers, that they can be violently abused and insulted. A business can perish if the owner does not provide safety or a basic decent atmosphere in his restaurant.
It would be equally bad, after such horrific incident has taken place, the owner does not see it through with pursuing a case with the help of the police. No customer would be happy about giving business to the restaurant if the owner falls short of his duty to the public – but then again, we are Malaysia, and our “Chinese” are involved! Our “Chinese” can be happy in any place if a discount – plus two free gifts are made, never mind anything else, including being insulted.
A loss of face can be sorted out with money. Everything has a price, our “Chinese” know the price of everything, though not the value of anything. A whack on the face can be expressed in money term, what amount of moolah would the injured party be happy to receive, no need to involve the law, no need to be cultured or be civilised.
I won’t know why the injured party or parties is or are not pursuing a case on their own, never mind Mr Steamboat. Frankly speaking, the injured can pursue a case, the video alone is already bad news for its bad Kung Fu and animal behaviour. Seen another way, the video can command a lot of moolah to change hands, the content is just plain fcuking awful, it needs to be buried quickly. Unless it is our shameless dumbfcuk politicians caught in a video and resorting to wild and endless denial, the video can be highly priced.
Of course, with our “Chinese”, everything is still “Wild West/East”, our savages can still resort to asking the service of gangsters to either be the “mediating” party for financial negotiation – or as the uncouth mouths and heavy-hands to threaten any classic Chinese revenge upon the injured if they should dare pursue anything further. Mr Steamboat and his business can be threatened too, all his boats will sink with him if he does not toe the line.
Everyone of our “Chinese” would have some kind of connection with our gangsters, be that direct of through middlemen and agents of the mafia enterprises. There are many gangster outfits, some even act for our fcuking politicians, datuks, Ah Longs, and all sorts of arseh*les. Some may have connections with the law, how can gangsters operate if the law is not on their side?
So my next assumption is money may have changed hands elsewhere other than with possibly Mr Steamboat. the money is good, everyone may now be happy, no need to trouble our police brothers and sisters or involve the courts…
If nothing further happens, then the “Chinese way” has won the day. That would be really bad for Malaysia: just how can we get low caste and low class monkey bestowed with any title, who strut round throwing their weight, talk like “Chinese”, verbally and physically abuse others?
Our fcuking “datuks” always love to come with a posse of attendant arsel*ckers and ccoksuckers, no difference in this movie clip, it makes our “datuks” feel important and may impress many of our “Chinese” who love titles and titled arseh*les. And money too, if there’s any whiff of that, plenty or little..!
You guys remember how fast our “Chinese” arsel*ckers and ccoksuckers came to the rescue of a certain titled “Chinese” when that Manchester sh*t-stirrer said a few naughty things about him? Both those monkeys from DAP and MCA of the “Chinese” or the “Malaysian race” came immediately to his defence!
It would be especially bad for our “Chinese” who would only know civilisation and culture as very bad Kung Fu movies to simply let this matter quietly disappear the usual way, see no evil, smell no evil, just talk the evil and do the evil behind backs and quietly…
I hope the police will act correctly, see this matter through the courts. In any civilised country, the title would have been stripped even before the sordid matter goes to court. The fcuking low class clown even addressed himself as “datuk” in the damage limitation clip! The last thing anyone half-intelligent would do is to drag the title into it and make it even more noticeable and embarrassing for whoever bestowed it, talk about cheap cheap cheapening the title!
In any case, I won’t go near that Steamboat outfit, not just I am not a fan of pigging food in low class joints, cheap price plus two free gifts or not, not only because of what happened and what has happened since the “datuk” showdown, I just don’t like the fcuking greasy look of “Datuk Tan”, the restaurant shouldn’t have let him in just for his fcuking look (seriously, the T-shirt!) – and see what’s happened with the uncivilised piece of sh*t being let loose..! See what his entourage of longkang fcuking arsel*ckers and ccoksuckers did?
The fcuking trouble with most of our “Chinese” is they can’t drink. A few sips of a bottle of pirated Malaysian copy of an “XO” our fcuking datuks become glorified kampong longkang abattoir hands turn Tan Dynasty imperial royalty nasties from the bad script of a low-budget Taiwanese television series, ptttuuiii..!
If you read this “Datuk Tan”, kann ning nei, and siah soi lah, so no-class kah?!