Enforcement officers often become victims of violence

GEORGE TOWN: An officer from the Penang Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry enforcement division was stopped and beaten up when he was heading to his Jelutong home after taking part in a raid against sellers of pirated VCDs.

The division’s former head M. Guna Selan recounted the incident which occurred in 2008 involving his officer.

“The tontos were harassing my personnel even before the raids. We had to devise strategies to get them off our tracks,” he said.

Guna Selan, who is now Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs mMinistry enforcement division senior principal assistant director based in Putrajaya, said tontos had given his men a hard time especially between 2006 and 2010.

He cited an incident on June 5, 2010 when tontos tried to stop his enforcement personnel from detaining an illegal VCD seller in Jalan Tun Lim Chong Eu (then Jelutong Expressway) during a high-speed chase.

“The man, in his 20s, lost control of his car and rammed into the vehicle carrying the enforcement personnel. But he abandoned his car and hopped onto a tonto’s motorcycle and fled,” he said.

In another incident the same year, Guna Selan said five tontos, two armed with parang, confronted five enforcement personnel who were conducting a raid at a stall selling illegal VCDs.

Fearing for their lives, he said the personnel rushed into their multi-purpose-vehicle (MPV).

Guna Selan said police charged two tontos in court for obstructing the work of enforcement personnel in relation to the enforcement of copyright laws.

“We lost the case due to lack of evidence. It is not easy to nail them,” he said.

Guna Selan said the tontos not only waited at the bus stop and corners of the department’s office in Downing Street, they even waited outside the homes of senior officers.

“Some even wait outside apartments. They will then tail the officers,” he said.