For quite a protracted period now, our Malaysian police force has found itself in the uncomfortable and unfamiliar position of being cast into the limelight, and scrutinised under the public microscope of the media.

This is an entirely new phenomenon in Malaysia of course. The police have always been the foremost law enforcement agency in the nation. Their ubiquitous presence is synonymous with law and order in a young and sometimes volatile democracy.

Over half a century of independence later, they have evolved into one of those institutions resembling the Holy Cow in India. Any reproach or direct open criticism against the police is tantamount to an act of subversion against their sanctimonious contribution towards the peace and stability of a multiracial society seething with tension beneath our veneer of racial harmony.

The prestige and power of the Malaysian police can be traced back to the difficult labour pain of our nation's birth.