One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out
and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately.
—President Donald Trump
I was 14 when I saw my first dead body.
Well, to be exact, it was three dead bodies.
They were lying on a sidewalk. Sprawled out. Bloodied.
The police were on the scene. They were starting to throw tarpaulin sheets over the bodies, covering them. The smell of hot metal lingered in the air. The scent of violence.
I didn’t witness the actual shooting myself. I only arrived in the aftermath, when the police had already set up a cordon, keeping the crowd of curious onlookers back.
It was around 1 o’clock in the afternoon. The glare of the sun was fierce, and the Malaysian humidity felt sticky on my skin. Squinting, shielding my eyes, I pushed forward, edging my way into the thronging crowd.
I asked a man standing beside me what had happened. He bunched up his shoulders and shrugged. He said nothing.
So, I turned to someone else: a woman. I asked her what had happened.
She stretched her lips thin, and she pointed at the jewellery store just across the street. She said the robbers had stormed into it. Yelling, waving pistols, threatening the staff. They used hammers to shatter the display cabinets. Scooping up the valuables.
Then the robbers exited the store — but they didn’t have a clean getaway.
Just then, a police paramilitary unit arrived in black SUVs. The troops descended from their vehicles, fanning out, their movements smooth as liquid. These weren’t regular cops. They wore full-face balaclavas and tactical body armour, and they carried assault weapons.
The robbers panicked. Broke into a flat-out run. The troops took aim with their rifles. Cutting the robbers down in a swathe of automatic fire. It was brutally quick.
There was no dramatic foot chase here. No Hollywood-style gunfight. Instead, the violence was short and sharp. This was an extrajudicial execution. Performed in broad daylight.
The woman I was speaking to had witnessed this event as it unfolded. ‘Robbers are the scum of our society.’ She clicked her tongue, nodding in approval. Her tone was acidic. ‘It’s good to kill them. They deserve it.’
Was this harsh? Vengeful? Why, yes. Undoubtedly. But then again, I couldn’t blame her for having such feelings.
The woman said that her family operated a video-rental store along the same street. Their business had suffered an aggravated robbery just the previous week. So, unsurprisingly, she had a hardened attitude when it came to criminality.
The General Operations Force, which serves as the paramilitary arm of the Royal Malaysia Police.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Of course, you already know this:
- Malaysia is a conservative Muslim country. So, the nation’s approach to law enforcement is ruthless. Uncompromising.
- This is not policing by consent. This is policing by brute force.
To understand why, you need to look back at the legacy of the Cold War:
- From 1948 to 1989, Malaysia fought a long conflict against communist insurgents. During this time, numerous government-backed paramilitary units were formed. To find, fix, and finish this existential threat.
- Eventually, the communists were defeated. The crisis was over. But the paramilitaries remained, growing entrenched, their influence looming large to this day.
- What is curious about these units is that they neither 100% police, nor are they 100% military. Instead, they exist in a twilight zone of legal ambiguity.
- Perhaps they operate as a kind of deep state. A police force within a police force. An army within an army. They tend to play by their own rules, and they are seldom answerable to any civilian authority.
In Malaysia today, the presence of these paramilitary units remains a matter of controversy:
- Some say they act as ‘death squads’, dishing out violence without restraint. Meanwhile, others say that they only punish the guilty, acting as a powerful deterrent against criminality.
- Perhaps there are arguments to made for either case. It all depends on what your political beliefs happen to be.
Source: Image by Chil Vera from Pixabay
Interestingly enough, in the United States, many citizens are frustrated by a soft approach to crime. Because of this, they are increasingly open to the idea of gunslinger, frontier-style justice. They seem to have found a champion in Donald Trump:
- In 2017, during his first term in office, Trump expressed his admiration for Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines. At the time, Duterte had issued ‘shoot-to-kill’ orders on drug dealers. This tougher line on crime seemed to resonate strongly with Trump.
- So now, in 2024, Trump is gearing up for a second term in the White House. His immediate target? The mass deportation of illegal immigrants in America. Trump has promised to use his executive power to give federal authorities the ability to pursue an aggressive border-control policy.
However, this isn’t a done deal just yet. You have to remember that the US political system has many checks and balances in place:
- The federal government cannot simply overrule state governments with unilateral action. In fact, most criminal laws are state-specific. Local authorities maintain sovereignty here.
- So, it’s unlikely that we will see frontier-style justice being applied across the board in America. Instead, what is more plausible is that we will see a return to the Ronald Reagan era of enforcement. You can expect less wokeness and more legal penalties. Yes, it’s about being tough on crime — but this will be done within the boundaries of the existing constitutional framework.
Now, are you in favour of Donald Trump’s deportation policy? Or do you have misgivings about it?
- Well, as an investor, it’s important to take an objective view here. After all, the market is neither conservative nor liberal. In fact, the market is completely neutral. It’s actually a force of nature with a primal will of its own, hungering only for financial growth and yield.
- This means that every presidency — no matter how controversial — will always offer its fair share of investment opportunity. To grasp this, you have to be contrarian. Be willing to think outside the box.
So, in this regard, I’ve been watching one company with law-enforcement links. It is being powered by artificial intelligence:
- Its stock price has rocketed over 500% in the past four years.
- Is it possible that this Company may experience more upside in 2025? Will a greater focus on border control actually provide more rocket fuel?
- Well, let’s take a closer look here…
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