“Many pretend they never saw anything happen although it happened in front of their two own eyes. This is the biggest problem we are facing.”

- Former inspector-general of police Hanif Omar

COMMENT | These words were the start of a decades-long association with former inspector-general of police Hanif Omar who passed away on Sunday.

What started as a reporter-police officer rebuke in August 1981 transformed into a working relationship and then friendship after he returned and joined the private sector having qualified as a lawyer, reading law in the United Kingdom.

At the time, Hanif had called for a media conference to deny there was any form of police brutality following The Malay Mail’s three-page coverage on among others, the high-handedness of some police officers.

The dressing down was in public and the competition was sneering at my then-partner Frankie D’Cruz and I who had jointly penned the highly explosive articles.

There were no threats to detain us or prosecute us for criminal defamation. There was also no anger in his face.

He was clarifying a point and...