Sunday June 10, 2007

Ever Rela to help

BY SHAHANAZ HABIB

With powers to crack down on illegal foreign workers, Rela, the People’s Voluntary Corp, is enjoying a new lease of life. But it has found itself in the news for the wrong reasons with its members being accused of beating up illegal workers, stealing from them and detaining legitimate foreign tourists. Rela director-general Datuk Zaidon Asmuni speaks to Sunday Staron the role of the voluntary body.

Rela was formed on Jan 11, 1972 after the May 13, 1969, incident. The Government felt Rela was one way to unite the rakyat alongside Rukun Tetangga and the National Unity Ministry. People of all races, both male and female, can be members of Rela.

What is Rela’s strength?

We have 475,000 members. One hundred thousand are very active, which means that if we just call, 100,000 will easily turn up.

As volunteers, do they get paid?

As of April 1, the Government approved a token sum of RM4 an hour for ordinary members while officers and platoon heads get RM5.80. This will be implemented only next year. Rela members work a minimum of eight hours a day with no overtime.

Even if we don’t pay them, it’s okay. People join out of a sense of satisfaction and pride. They volunteer because they want to be good, useful citizens, and assist the Government. Most volunteers have regular daytime jobs. We have teachers, clerks, businessmen, lawyers, even a doctor or two. Normally we conduct our operations on weekends and at night after office hours.

How does one join Rela?

It’s simple. Any citizen aged 16 can apply to become a Rela member.

Do Rela officers have to be in uniform for their operations?

The police have their uniform but they seldom wear it in a (covert) operation. It’s the same with Rela. In a group of 100 Rela volunteers, maybe 10 will be in plain clothes. If we all go in wearing the Rela uniform, the foreign illegal workers will run away.

So normally we ask 10 or 15 in plain clothes to go in first. Then, within half an hour, we cordon off the place. In an operation of 100 men, only one or two are officers and carry guns. The rest are armed with a chota. We give them a stick or two to protect themselves against attacks from immigrants. There have been a few incidents but not very serious ones.

If you cordon off a rumah kongsi with 100 people staying there, maybe only 20 are illegal and the others are legal workers. Normally it is the legal ones who protest as they feel that they are legal and get angry and ask why Rela is coming there to cordon and arrest them.

Normally when we cordon the area, our officers will tell them not to worry as this is a normal operation and ask for their full support. We have to do that or they will start struggling and quarrelling.

I don’t have a problem with my officers (not volunteers) carrying guns because they are all ex-army men with knowledge on how to handle weapons.

There have been a number of cases of abuse and Rela members stealing and hitting detainees.

To me, the number of abuses is very small compared to the number of operations. I have found the walloping of illegal workers is actually in response to something that happened. If they give full co-operation when we go into a rumah kongsi, I don’t think the Rela members will start hitting them “for fun”.

But the tendency is for the illegal workers to start climbing out the windows and up the roof to escape. This makes Rela members angry. Sometimes it is the legal foreign workers or employers who get angry. They scold us, question the Rela powers and threaten to call the police.

The Rela members are just ordinary people. Threatening them with the police and questioning their powers make them angry.

When we tell them Rela has powers, they don’t believe us. The first six months after we were given the new powers were very challenging. Even the employers challenged us and thought our operations were illegal because we were not accompanied by the police. But now, with the media reports, there is more awareness and people appreciate our powers.

Is Rela allowed to hit the illegal workers?

Of course not! Even the police under the law cannot hit suspects. But some of the illegals climb up the roof and fall in their attempt to get away. They get injured. And they claim that Rela members beat them up. We never train our people to hit. Never!

Before any operation, we line up the Rela members and tell everyone not to use force, not to hit people, not to take their money or handphones. And after an operation, we line up members and check their pockets at random. We also tell them not to bring a lot of money to prevent them from being accused of stealing.

Aren’t Rela members supposed to identify themselves?

Usually we say we are Rela. But normally the guards won’t open the gates and let us enter. You don’t expect us to wait until morning! We can’t keep pleading with the guards for an hour or two to open up.

We have powers given in this Act. We can enter with or without a warrant. Our alternative is to enter without a warrant, that’s why we resort to climbing fences. If we have full co-operation from the guards, we don’t have to do that.

There have been people misusing the Rela uniform to rob?

Previously, nobody wore the Rela uniform to impersonate officers or members; they used police or Immigration uniforms. But nowadays, they use the Rela uniform and I would say this is a recognition of Rela and its powers – although in a negative sense.

As for the robbery in Batu Maung by the 10 to 15 people in Rela uniform, I can assure you that they are not Rela members. If they were, do you think they would wear the Rela uniform? That’s a dead giveaway.

What kind of training is provided for Rela members?

First they have to be registered members. We have a 10-day basic training course. We want to make it compulsory but with 475,000 members, we can only cater for 150 or 200 at one time. So they learn from the operations.

Does Rela check the background of members?

We don’t do that now because we want to encourage people to join us. If a person has a bad record, then we won’t take him and may send his name to the police. If we send in 475,000 names for the police to check, it would be too time-consuming. They have other more pressing priorities.

What is the illegal workers’ count?

Last year, our target was 20,000 but we detained 25,000. For this year, up to May 21, we have caught 16,767.

We sent them to the depots. It is Immigration that prosecutes and deports them.

This year, we checked out 89,720 workers. People, especially the taukehs, claim that their 1,000 workers are all legal. But when people start complaining to Rela that they see so many foreign workers lingering around in an area, we cannot determine if they are legal or illegal until we check them one by one.

This gets the taukeh angry if his workers are legal. But if we don’t check an area after receiving public complaints, they will ask if we have been bribed not to. It’s a case of buat pun salah, tak buat pun salah (damned if you do, damned if you don’t).

What about the case of the Indian film crew member Rela detained that got the Tourism Minister all riled up?

The Indian crew member was walking through Petaling Street at 9.30pm. If it’s a Mat Salleh (Caucasian), it would be easy because we would know he is a tourist for sure. But for others, we have to check. Under the law, all foreigners have to carry their passport or travel document with them all the time.

We are not against tourism; we encourage it but this is a matter of security. When we check and a person has no passport on him, we keep him in a holding centre. If somebody brings the passport, we will let him go.

The Tourism Minister complained that we detained the Indian crew member for three hours but that was because the passport was produced only three hours later. If he can produce the passport in 10 minutes, then he will be released in 10 minutes. If it is produced only after three days, then he has to be detained for three days.

Rela has been criticised for being insensitive to human rights. There was even a call for it to be disbanded.

No way! Just because of one or two naughty members, surely we are not going to disband Rela. If a policeman robs, you charge him. You do not disband the police force for one person’s abuse. For Rela, if a member abuses his power, I will sack him. But the others can carry on.

Since late last year, we have been working very closely with Suhakam and they have held talks with Rela members and officers. It’s good because at least we have knowledge on basic human rights. But which one do you want? Security or human rights? If we can, of course we want both.

What do you think is the general public perception of Rela?

They praise us because we have managed to overcome a lot of problems related to illegal foreign workers, squatters, and illegal bikers. Four years ago, nobody knew us but today the whole world knows about Rela.

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