By Jugjet Singh
NEVER hold the Police Force to ransom, as you will lose your freedom, and privileges before you can say shoot.
Two national players found out the hard way when they did just that to the Police, and might now miss a chance to play in the Asian Champions Trophy in Kuantan on Oct 20-30 as well.
National No 1 drag flick specialist Razie Rahim and midfielder Nabil Fiqri joined the Police as trainee Inspectors four months ago together with national women's players Farah Ayuni Yahya and Noor Hasliza Ali.
They reported for training on May 8, and all was going well until Kuala Lumpur Hockey Club (KLHC) felt that they needed Nabil and Razie to boost their sagging fortunes in the Premier Division of the Malaysia Hockey League.
KLHC wrote to the Pulapol Camp Commander asking for the duos release to play two crucial matches against Sapura on Friday and Terengganu Hockey Team on Saturday.
Police shot down the request because the understanding with the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) was that the four players can only be released for national duty, as well as national training as they will be undergoing training for nine months before the passing out parade.
Razie and Nabil then threatened to quit the Force if they are not allowed to play for their club KLHC.
But the threat was met with a counter request for a letter stating that they quit the Police training on their own accord, which they failed to hand over.
The saga continued, as these two players had gotten away with murder in demands aganst the MHC before and felt they were above the Force.
Maneuvers were made to take them out of Pulapol on purpose of national weights training, and it worked. But instead of going to Bukit Jalil for weights on Friday, they went to the Tun Razak Hockey Stadium to play for KLHC in the Premeir Division.
Razie scored two penalty corner goals by the 30th minute to help KLHC beat Sapura 3-0, but by half-time their ruse was dicovered by officers in Pulapol and they were told to pack their knap-sacks and report back to Pulapol in a huff.
They left the game in a lurch, and were not allowed to play in the following day's crucial match against THT -- where KLHC lost 2-1.
Naturally, the Pulapol Camp Commander is fuming mad with what happened as he had bent backwards earlier to acommodate requests from the MHC.
An MHC delegation with no less than Terry Walsh as well as women's coach K. Dharmaray and men's coach Stephen van Huizen had visited all four Inspector Trainees in Pulapol recently and asked for some leeway like days out for national as well as weights training's, and for tournaments which involve the national team.
The Force agreed to their demands, as it was for the nation's good. But they were also adamant that Club duty does not come under this understanding.
So, by holding the Police Force to ransom, and jumping the Pulapol fence on a ruse, Malaysia might now lose the services of Razie and Nabil for the Asian Champions Trophy which offers World ranking points for the first time.
MHC officials were also involved in this complot, and its only fair to penalise everybody who is involved in this conspiracy to play.
Another ransom case solved. Well done Royal Malaysia Police.
