I was in the car with my friend and suddenly a police came over and gestured us to stop at the road side.
“Tadi lepas lampu merah. Saya hijau. Macam mana awak boleh jalan?” The Malay policeman said.
“Ya ka? Tadi saya nampak saya punya kuning saja. Kami urgent, jadi saya jalan,” my friend answered.
I saw the policeman had a “SAYA ANTI-RASUAH” white red badge.
“Macam mana? Macam mana? Bagi la, bagi lah,” he said.
“Aiya, encik boleh tolong ke?” my friend asked him.
“Bagi la, sekarang biznes tak baik. Bagi. Bagi. Sekarang biznes tak ok.”
“Bukan Anti-Rasuah ke?” I chided the police.
My friend elbowed me. I kept quiet.
I wanted to take his face and his badge name’s photo. He was asking for bribe when he’s a policeman! Hypocrite! But my friend wanted to give the bribe too, saying it would be more convenient and cheaper.
“Jadi saman la,” the police said. He wrote a lot of things into his notebook.
“Encik jadi kena bayar berapa?” my friend asked him.
“Awak tengok surat khabar la.”
WHAT? He didn’t know the rate?
I asked my friend again, “Just now I didn’t see the traffic light.. really yellow already?”
“Actually, yes.. red light already.”
I really hate government staff who are corrupted. But it is certainly easier and cheaper for my friend if the police accepted the bribe even after my ‘bad-mouth’. The police also happy – he gets pocket money if he accepts the bribe but he gets nothing from writing a saman except maybe good performance record. Maybe the government should introduce commission rate for traffic police haha.
Actually if there is no offender and no corruption, this wouldn’t happen. But our salaries (civilians & police) are not increasing as much as other living expenses like food, petrol, etc.
The police claimed the salary given by the government is not enough. What’s the true story? There are so many corrupted police (and equally corrupted civilians) – so why should they be given high salary? And how do the government/higher level determine which police is corrupted or not?
I felt really bad for my interference, I offered to my friend, “I pay half la.” I didn’t want my friend to be in trouble because it is her car and she was willing to pay for the bribe in the first place. Bad mouth!!! *cover mouth*
“No la!”
Someone advised me, “Sometimes you have to be practical. You can’t live in your ideal philosophy when the others are not like you. Somemore it’s not your car. You should’ve kept quiet.”
“I thought the police would stop giving saman and not take bribe after I said that… but yes, I should’ve shut up.”
“The police obviously didn’t have the same opinion.”
I felt like reporting or complaining this policeman’s behaviour to the government!
“But what if next time you are in trouble and you meet this policeman or his friend? You never know when they kena you. Maybe they kena you also you don’t know.”
I’m going to follow up with her on the penalty. Will definately pay half.. if she doesn’t accept it, then I’ll have to treat her to a big meal.
How to NOT pay bribe and get saman?
We all say