The assault on the deaf-mute Grab driver by an escort is back in the headlines again. This time, the Deaf Advocate and Wellbeing National Organisation, a non-governmental organisation, is asking a question any reasonable person will ask: why the long delay by the authorities in acting against the escort?
Delayed it certainly has been if we start our count on May 28, the day the Grab driver lodged a police report complaining of the alleged assault. On June 5, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said the investigation papers for the case were with the Attorney-General's Chambers for action. It has been 48 days since then.
The delay is damaging to the police and the A-GC, given the public outrage that accompanied the incident. The deaf-mute driver's case is of great public interest and the authorities must treat it with the utmost urgency.
For sure, the OKU Grab driver's case isn't the only one the A-GC is handling. Investigation papers from every nook and corner of the country head that way, too. But it has been many days too many since June 5, if not since May 28. There are at least three reasons why quick action in this case by the authorities would have stood them in good stead.
First, of late, several men in blue have been grabbing media headlines for all the wrong reasons. A quick flip through this year's newspapers comes up with policemen being investigated or charged with assault, sexual assault, extortion and even murder. There should be no place for degenerate officers in the force. A rapid fire action by the A-GC would have helped show that the police do not practise favouritism when investigating a member of the force.
Second, it would also be a plus point for the A-GC, especially when the unity government is pushing for a performance culture in the civil service. The A-GC should not have waited for an NGO to call on it to take immediate action. Nor for the Grab driver's lawyer, Latheefa Koya, to question the long silence at the A-GC's end. Latheefa is no ordinary lawyer. She once headed the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, meaning she knows the process a case is put through and how long it should take to reach a decision. On July 11, she told a news portal that she had viewed the Grab diver's dashcam video and that the case was a straightforward one. "This is a matter of public interest. The long silence from the authorities is unacceptable," the news portal quoted her as saying.
Now a dozen more days later, the long silence has become longer still.
Finally, quick action in this case would have helped grow public trust in authorities, which has dipped somewhat of late. Let's not forget, no less than His Royal Highness Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, the Regent of Johor, urged the police on May 31 to investigate the alleged assault of the Grab driver. We won't be wrong to read the royal urging as one of utmost urgency. June has come and gone and July will do the same in eight days. Yet there is still no news from the A-GC. Not a good sign.