KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — The Dungun district police headquarters took to its Facebook page today to express its regret at the discovery that two individuals had shared photos of themselves escaping police roadblocks, with one even boasting about how his wife’s medical frontliner perks had allowed him to do so.
The administrator of the Polis Daerah Dungun Facebook page said that the two separate incidents had upset them, despite the hard work and efforts taken to protect the public.
“The admin is truly upset with the two postings here, after they were given the leeway, it was abused. May Allah open the hearts of these two people to be more sensitive towards the Covid-19 outbreak.
“The Dungun IPD especially, would tighten our checks so that incidents like these do not happen in the Dungun district, and we want to offer a reminder that should reasons given be doubtful and not reasonable, we will take sterner action,” the post read.
In one post, a man pictured his wife’s frontliner car tag and expressed relief that he was allowed through a roadblock because of her status, despite the tag reading “official duties only”.
In another post, a man seemingly shared a family photo of himself, his wife and children, and included a tip on the best way to get through a roadblock.
“The tip is taking your child to the hospital...” a caption beneath his post read.
He had purportedly travelled to Kuala Lumpur, with his family, and posted a photo of himself holding what appeared to be a postnatal check-up book.
However, Malay Mail’s checks saw that the page administrator had removed the second posting.
Earlier, state news agency Bernama reported that civil servants and government retirees are at risk of losing their pensions, should they be found guilty of violating the movement control order (MCO).
The report quoted Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) president Adnan Mat as saying that civil servants and government retirees should always be mindful that the various “privileges” enjoyed by them, including their salaries, allowances or pensions, could be revoked if they are found guilty of breaching any law.
On Tuesday, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that the police will be focusing less on issuing compound notices to flouters of the MCO, and will now book them to be brought straight to court.
In a press conference broadcast “live” from Putrajaya, Ismail Sabri said that the new decision was made by the government, seeing how many are still defying the MCO.
“We see that the rakyat are acting as if they don’t care or are not afraid of the laws we have today. Maybe RM1,000 is not seen as too high to scare them, those of whom are still continuously violating the MCO.
“So we agreed that the police, beginning tomorrow, won’t focus on compounds. Beginning tomorrow, those who are caught will be remanded and brought straight to court,” he added.
