Despite Change In Political Landscape, Rela Still Alive And Kicking

A 42-year-old tour guide has lodged a police report after a group of Rela members allegedly tried to break into her apartment in Tingkat Tong Shin here while apparently tracking a suspected illegal immigrant.

Leow Mee Leng said that the men had failed to identify themselves properly, did not have a search warrant and were not accompanied by any policeman or Immigration officer.

In the 3.15am incident on Monday, Leow said she was fast asleep at her apartment located on the second floor of a town house. "I heard a thumping sound at my front door and heard a man shouting loudly, asking me to come out.

"I went to the door and asked him what the problem was, but he only shouted back that if I did not open the door he would break it open. I peeked through the peephole and saw several men standing outside. Fearing for my life, I ran back into my room and telephoned my first-floor neighbour who advised me to open the door,'' she said.

Leow said she hesitated for several minutes but decided to open the door when her neighbour and his wife came over to her apartment and shouted at her to open the door.

"There were about six to eight men in uniform, and one of them just dashed into my house with a torchlight. The man came out several minutes later and told his superior that he did not find anything,'' she said, adding that they refused to tell her what they were looking for.

Leow said that when urged by her neighbour, one of the Rela members told him that they were looking for "someone" who had escaped and believed to be hiding in Leow's house.

"The man also asked my neighbour's wife whether I was a Malaysian. When she told them that I was, they told me to go back into my apartment and then left hastily,'' she said.

Leow claimed that several minutes later, she saw the men taking away four women and two men from another apartment. She said her front door had been damaged and is missing an iron bar.

She lodged a report at the Dang Wangi police station on Monday evening. (The Star)

***** Governments may come and go, but the infamous Rela's Nazi-style tactics stubbornly remain and steadfastly continue to be an affront to the sensibilities of an increasingly impatient public. They should be leashed and muzzled as one would a rabid mongrel.