In the Istana Negara case, police said two men aged 29 and 37 tried to enter the palace compound via the Jalan Sultan Abdul Halim gate at around 4.40pm on Friday, claiming that they wanted to meet the king Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, New Straits Times reported.
But officers found a machete in their car and arrested them, the report said, adding that the men are being investigated for criminal trespass and possession of an offensive weapon.
Prof Ahmad Fauzi said the incidents reflected society’s discontentment with the country’s economic affairs and possibly a perceived threat against Islam, although he stressed that actual motives should be left to investigations.
These disgruntled individuals could also be targeting the police as authority figures who interact the most with the public, and taking advantage of lax security measures at police stations amid relative peace in the country, he said.
“Although the chances of success (in these incidents) are very slim, the suspects get what they want – probably fame, publicity and later even chances to get interviewed by the media,” he added.
SOCIETY ON EDGE
Dr Haezreena Begum Abdul Hamid, a criminologist and deputy dean of Universiti Malaya’s law faculty, said the spate of incidents keeps people on edge in terms of what might happen next.
“This is definitely not a healthy emotional state we are in neither does this give us a reprieve from the horrific incident at Ulu Tiram police station or the time to mourn over the incident,” she wrote in a commentary published by local media on Monday.
Dr Haezreena said there is a need to explore if crime is contagious, for instance, if there is a propensity to commit similar crimes in the aftermath of a major crime such as the police station attack in Ulu Tiram.
“Can we also presume that the crimes succeeding the Ulu Tiram’s incident was an attempt to gain notoriety by the perpetrators or just an act to taunt the police given that they are on high alert?” she asked.
