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Posted on February 27, 2004
Discrimination or Law Enforcement?
A couple of nights ago, I met a colleague of mine in the pub, he was taking a visiting colleague from US out as the guy is flying out the next day. He told me on the way to the pub, as they was walking along the pavement, they were stopped by two police men on bike. The police demanded their IC. They were not acting suspiciously, they were not rowdy, they were just walking along the pavement on their way to the pub. Now, why does the police men stop them for IC? Were they stop because of their looks? They were Indian by the way. If they were, then this is discriminating. We know that the police has the right to stop anyone and demand IC, as it is by law that we need to carry our IC with us all the time. But I don?t see the police stopping me or any other Chinese. My joking response to my friend was that he looked like a Bangladeshi? It could be true? the police could have thought that he was a foreigner, maybe to make a quick buck or may be they were truly trying to nab all the illegal workers. Nevertheless, it is something that we will see more in the future, as all major race have look a like migrant workers. Bangladesh, IndoChina and Indonesia? One day, I will be stop. Hope that on that day, I did not accidentally leave my IC at home. This is not something new, in the early independence days, when the IC concept was introduced, police were checking them then, my parents were use do it, and they keep telling me to bring my IC all the time. It is just that for me, a generation that was born in the 70?s, we never encounter police checking IC randomly. It is sad that we have to deal with this from time to time, and worst of all, it is the law… —–
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hi Kew, i was once stopped by two police officers near LRT station at Masjid Jamek. They were asking my IC and i gave him to take a look. I don’t know why all the sudden they asked my IC, maybe i looked like an indon to them or maybe they’re just doing random check and see whether they hit the right person.