The Prey and the preyer

I have decided I do not like politics and anything to do with it. I also prefer to focus on my sphere of influence not on my sphere of concern. Reading about murders and killings and corruption makes me sad and sometimes I feel that things are so hopeless.
Lately I have come face to face with the worst kind of corruption possible , people preying on the weak and powerless. I do not have the strength to fight this with my might but the least I can do is to relate what I had come face to face with.

I had an inkling of this kind of preying while I was in Chowkit one day, just beside the Bomba station in front of Brisdale hotel. I had gone out to get a breather during one of my seminars. I saw 2 policemen roughing up a young man. I think he was Indonesian. I sensed something was wrong. I felt very angry then but did not do anything about it although I felt very strongly like asking the two policemen what they were doing. Perhaps the young man did not have a valid visa or something but I knew the two policemen wanted money from the hapless chap.

Last week I wanted to see one of my rehab patients. I heard from my clinic nurse that he had a problem with the law and wanted his version of it. He told me about being taken to the police station because of his cell phone. The policeman insisted it was stolen and brought a girl whose phone was missing to identify the phone my patient had with him.The girl denied it was her phone. It was his own phone. It was near Hari Raya and the policeman wanted money to make ends meet. He asked my patient for money. My patient did not have any and the policeman said," Then I will frame you and get you thrown in jail" So my patient , let us call him Amin, was forced by the policeman to give him his cell phone. I asked Amin why give in when he was not guilty of anything? Amin said he did not want any trouble, it was so near to Hari Raya and he did not want his mum to be upset . He had done enough in the past to make his mum sad he said, so he just gave in because he did not want any trouble. I know my rehab patients are talented actors and can put on a pretty convincing "poor me " show but this was for real. I gave a big sigh and shook my head. Do something about it Amin, report the fellow.

Today Arisham wanted to see me .The tall muscular good looking young man with a pony tail looked troubled. I have an open door policy for my rehab patients and told them they can come in to discuss with me whatever needed airing. Arisham needed to talk so I just listened. He told me on the third day of Raya he was held up at a road block and the policeman asked him if he had taken drugs. He had been clean for a whole year but the day before he had met some of his old friends and someone had given him a joint of cannabis. So thinking honesty was the best policy he told the policeman yes he had smoked cannabis , just a little. The man arrested him and took a urine sample. And then came the bombshell. Have you got RM2000? If you have, then I will make sure your urine is clean. He did not have the money and spent the night in the lock up. The next day he got out on a bail of RM1000.It was his own money. The fact that he had this money was because he had been clean for a year, but that was all he had. He was saving it for something. What is he to do? His case will be mentioned in two weeks and if he did not have the money he was looking at at least 4 months jail and rotan because he was a repeat offender who was still on parole from the Pusat Serenti. I asked him why did he smoke the cannabis when he had been clean for so long and he said because of friends and he looked at me as if expecting me to understand and actually I did understand. To a drug addict or a recovering drug addict his friends were part of an emotional support system that saw him through his drug clouded mind and life. Nobody accepted him except his friends and nobody understood the love affair with drugs except his friends so he owed them and was loyal to them and besides, what was cannabis compared to his heroin addiction? I could only listen but in my heart I was so sad.
Why are there such buzzards in our society? What is the blessing in money obtained from such extortion?I looked sorrowfully at Arisham and asked him, would you do this again? Of course at that point in time he was repentent and vehemently said no. I felt God the most merciful would forgive this truly repentant man even as I also knew he would forget and fall again...for drug addiction is a chronic relapsing illness...why do buzzards and vultures prey on the ill and hapless.?

I already know the answer: " Because it is their nature."


Old turkey buzzard
Old turkey buzzard
Flying flying high
Buzzards just a waiting
Buzzards just a waiting
Waiting for the people down below to die
Old buzzard knows that he can wait
For every mother's child has got a date
A date with pain..

from the theme song of Mackenna's Gold....