I refer to the front page story in the Sun .

I am amazed and flabbergasted that our authorities are so obsessed with policing of thoughts and words rather than going after real criminals.

The police should not be concentrating on Twitter and Facebook. Police expertise in this area should be targeted at computer-related crimes and crimes through the Internet /cyberworld.

Instead, taxpayers’ monies are being spent on targeting taxpayers who may or may not agree with the government of the day, under the guise of various acts that the government of the day have enacted to protect themselves from criticism and any comebacks.

Events of recent past have proven that nothing can shake the ruling government; even obtaining less than 50 percent vote in the last election is of no relevance. If anything, the last election has proven that the ruling government is untouchable by anyone, even the majority of the voters, whose majority votes could not change the government of the day.

So why waste or time and money on the unusual concentration of targeting opposition politicians and civil rights advocates, who by all accounts have not made a dent in the power base of the ruling party? The ruling party is as strong as it ever can be, even compared to self-confessed dictator Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Worse still why is the inspector-general of police (IGP) so obsessed with policing people’s thoughts and words, while it is fantasy-land to imagine and hope the authorities will act fairly, which they have never done in living memory but only for self-protection and self-preservation , it’s still unusual why so much effort is made targeting people who don’t support the government.

Surely our authorities have better things to do, like attending seminars overseas, or going for ‘lawatan sambil belajar’ to study how US police use cyber-technology to combat crimes or how Bangladesh is sorting its manual workers out?

Can’t we just leave the government non-supporters be, why waste so much money and effort in continuously harassing them with so many different laws and administrative actions?

Police have broken new ground by removing billboards that they allege to be seditious, although in the past where many wrongdoings such as illegal billboards been pointed out to them, they have not taken action and instead referred to local councils for action.

The police should just concentrate their power and effort in combating any comment on royalty, race and religion as these are potential trouble spots, and all other matters should be just left alone.

Defamation is personal

The authorities should also not use criminal defamation law to combat lies and slander as if anyone has been defamed, then seek action via the civil court. It is not right to protect people using the criminal defamation process as defamation is personal and criminal law should not be used to combat something civil.

Regardless, the authorities, may it be the police or the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) or the local councils must always remember that while they have no choice but to follow orders from their political masters (even this is debatable in a properly-run society where the rule of law will apply) they must be mindful that they undertake these actions courteously and civilly as those they are taking action against are fellow citizen, at times of the same race and religion, and one day may be their master instead.

There is no need to arrest people to question them in any case, just question them and charge people if you have to or there is evidence, just arresting people for questioning is also not a much-civilised way of administrating justice or applying law enacted by ruling government. Most of the time these people are fighting for the betterment of your children and your grandchildren’s future.

Have a heart, everyone are fellow citizens of this country. Why treat them worse than what you have to do to carry out your job?