Disband Rela (People's Volunteer Corps) in the interest of justice and human rights

The call for the abolition of RELA yet again hit the newspapers, when the Bar Council once again reiterated its call for the disbandment of RELA..

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 (Bernama) -- The Bar Council today called on the authority to disband Rela (People's Volunteer Corps) following numerous reports on its members' abuse of power and brutality in enforcement raids.

Bar Council Law Reform and Special Areas chairman Datuk M. Ramachelvam said Rela members were not trained for such a job and by allowing them to carry out raids would only perpetuate human rights abuses.

He said instead of capitalising on Rela's manpower, the government should employ more Immigration officers to carry out the job.

"How can they become law enforcers when they undergo only two weeks of training? That is OK if their role is confined to directing traffic, but not conducting raids as they are doing now.

"Rela is not equipped to determine the authenticity of the documents carried by migrants. Allowing Rela to continue to conduct raids on their own will means that many persons who are documented and who have not committed any offence will also end up being detained," he said at a news conference after chairing a roundtable discussion on the "Arrest and Detention of Migrants", here, Friday. - Bernama, 5/12/2008, Bar Council's Call To Disband Rela

And in the media, over the past 2 weeks there were reports that could say strengthen the reasons why RELA should be abolished...disbanded. If there is a need for more law enforcement personnel, then hire and train more police...more immigration enforcement officers, etc..Stop using these volunteers..

A Rela member and two wo­­men were among 12 suspects held for more than 39 cases of armed robbery in the state.

The gang used the women as fronts to go to victims’ houses on the pretext of passing the latter wedding cards. They would then break into the houses and sometimes injure their victims using parangs and axes.

As for the Rela member, police believed that he had rented out his gun to one of the gang members. He was picked up in Nusajaya.- Star, 3/12/2008 -Rela man among 12 held

A Rela raid ended in tragedy when an Indonesian illegal immigrant was killed and another seriously injured when they fell from a flat in Section 19 here yesterday.- New Straits Times, 27/11/2008 - Illegal dies during raid

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Rela and the cops

Posted by: redtiger

Last night at about 1.30 am as I was driving through USJ, there was a road block with the signage written BERHENTI PEMERIKSAAN POLIS. I saw 2 rela officers ushering the cars with their torchlights to drive in a single lane. At the end of the lane there was another 2 Rela officers checking all passing vehicles.

There were 3 uniformed cops standing near the police landrover 'talking' to 4 chinese youths who were presumed to have committed an offence. Their car was parked at the roadside near the landrover.

Under what law and authority does RELA have the power to check vehicles? Who are these RELA guys? They were given the full powers by the 3 lazy cops to do their jobs and of course they would be very glad and excited to do the job for the police.

RELA officers are untrained and comprise of people with low education level. Their selection are not made based on anything. Anyone can join RELA, especially those overzealous guys who want to wear the uniforms and have the 'powers'.

The police should not allow such nonsense by RELA to assist in such anti-crime operations. These are the guys who will add to denting the already bad police image. RELA should not be used for the sake of lack of manpower. Its better to use the Police Volunteer Reserve or even the Auxiliary Police who have some basic police training..

Its enough for the Immigration Department's image to be damaged by these RELA guys in arresting and apprehending the illegal immigrants. Everyone knows their antics when arresting these illegals. Their high handed ways and threatening manners have given the government a bad image to the foreigners, legal and illegals alike. The police should not allow the same to happen and should not succumb to these guys.

The Subang Jaya OCPD should be held responsible for this misdemeanour because accountability is the order of the day!- Star Online