The Buck Stops Here

Good cop, bad cop, and vice versa

The contrast was stark, one guy was grilled for 4 hours, another was let off after 30 minutes. One was in the thick of the action, the other took 30 minutes to mobilise the action squad - discounting the extra 10 minutes he waited for a return call to confirm the situation report. Precious time needed to dress up niftily before swinging into action - or face the wrath of ex-police commissioner Tee Tua Ba, a man who obviously likes his officers to be dressed up in uniform to the Teeth (sorry, couldn't resist that).

Extensive use of the objective pronoun rained like projectiles hurled at Little India, and there was no dodging the accusations let fly:
"You did not know because you chose not to know"
"That is your imagination, not reality"
"You have somehow made it worse by not taking any action"
"You don't know means there must be something wrong with the system"
"We believe that you have read the crowd wrongly"

"So was it a failure of you or a failure of the system?" It was a question that prompted the beleaguered Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) Lu Yeow Lim to respond with: "Is the honourable member asking for an opinion or a question?" From the line of questioning rolled out in the terrifying tirade, the politically correct answer has to be about the man. Opinion-wise, the system has to be at fault. The same system that allowed a limping terrorist to make it across to Johore, and a mentally challenged female to drive pass the immigration checkpoint unperturbed.

Maybe the whole charade was just a test run for the limits of the new anti-harassment laws proposed. If Lu is indeed being laid out as sacrificial pawn, he deserves a medal for not letting the buck stop at a higher rank - where it should really belong.