LETTER | Reckless political leaders encouraging criminal behaviour

LETTER | Last week, the mother and daughter duo of Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and Tengku Yasmin Nastasha Tengku Abdul Rahman, who mounted a constitutional challenge that nullified 16 provisions in Kelantan’s syariah criminal laws, complained that they have been receiving an endless number of death threats as a result.

“This morning, when I woke up, there were already people slamming me, one wrote ‘we’ll find these two (Nik Elin and daughter), we’ll burn their house, Allahuakbar!” Nik Elin said.

Nik Elin also has filed three police reports over the threats, including one that threatened to “slaughter” her over her constitutional challenge.

If that is not enough, yesterday (Feb 12), Johor police chief M Kumar said he received a bomb threat through email.

This came after earlier reports that three government agencies in Johor Bahru had received similar threats.

In criminology, the “broken window” theory states that visible signs of crime, antisocial behaviour, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes.

According to the theory, if a window in a building is broken and is left unattended, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken.

These death threats that Nik Elin and her daughter have received, as well as the bomb threat that government agencies and the police in Johor have received, are each like “broken windows”.

They are visible signs of crime, antisocial behaviour and civil disorder. If these “broken windows” are not addressed, they will encourage further crime and disorder, which might even degenerate into cases of more serious crimes.

That we are seeing back-to-back cases of death threats and bomb threats being issued blatantly against government officials is likely a sign that the people’s trust and respect in our laws, authority, and institutions is being rapidly eroded.

People, as a rule, follow examples - not instructions - and examples are provided by leaders and those who are in the top positions.

If our leaders and top politicians continuously bend and break the law while behaving as if they are smart and capable for being able to get away with it, why wouldn’t the people take after their example and do the same?

There is a reason why a law-abiding and civilised country is one that adheres to process, procedures, and system, not only in letter but also in spirit.

When everybody sees that everything in the country is running systematically according to established processes and procedures, they will work together with the system, which will in turn make the country civilised and cultured.

When people often see their leaders recklessly breaking or bending the system and behaving as if they are smart and capable because they are capable of bending the system, then they will aim to prove to themselves and everyone that they too are smart and capable because they can bend and break the system.

It takes generations of good and virtuous leaders to establish a process, procedure, and system that can inspire the confidence of the people to follow it, to the point that it brings peace, happiness and prosperity to the country.

The reign of one or two reckless and careless leaders, who believe that they are so special that they are not bound by any laws and procedures that governs everybody else is often all it takes to bring down what took generations to build.

There is a limit to how many many cases like Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s DNAA or former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s partial pardon - despite the latter not having admitted his guilt - that the people can witness before they start believing that only losers and weaklings are bound by the system.

When our leaders themselves, through their example, teach the people that to be a winner and a champion, you have to dare to break the system, then as sure as night follows day, those amongst us who see themselves as winners and champions will clamour to break the system.

We can only hope that our leadership will quickly wake up and realise the consequences of the bad example that they have been showing.

If they don’t wake up soon and show by their example that a winner and champion is one who is capable of abiding by the system, regardless of how difficult it is and how much sacrifice one must make to abide it, and if they keep showing us that a winner and a champion is one that is capable of breaking the system and getting away with it, like the “broken window” theory postulates, it is only a matter of time before we see more serious cases of criminal, antisocial, and civil disorder occurring.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.