RELA Corps

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"RELA" is the acronym of Ikatan Relawan Rakyat Malaysia (in English: Volunteers of Malaysian People). Rela Corps is a civil volunteer corps formed by the Malaysian government. Their main duty is to check the traveling documents and immigration permits of foreigners in Malaysian cities, including tourists, visitors and migrants to reduce the increasing rate of illegal immigrants in Malaysia. RELA has the authority to deal with situations like policemen, such as raiding suspected streets or places such as factories, restaurants and even hotels. They are also fully authorized to conduct the interrogation and even detaining people who forgot to bring their traveling documents, like passports and/or working permits.

Given only basic training, this civil corps is sometimes equipped with firearms, making many cases of power abuse by this civil corps. Many cases in Malaysia the RELA volunteers, abused their power, which created trauma for foreign visitors in Malaysia, have made RELA Corps to be listed in the Human Rights Watch.

Contents

[edit] Mission and Objective

  • Vision

To prepare, train, and maintain a volunteer force as the Nation's line of defense and to guard the well fare of the citizens of Malaysia.

  • Mission

To deploy and mobilize the volunteer force in order to reduce Illegal Immigrant and to assist other enforcement agencies in order to maintain peace and security throughout Malaysia.

  • Objective

Help preserve national security, peace and well fare of the Malaysian citizens and to reduce Illegal Immigrant

[edit] Roles and Priorities

[edit] During War or Emergency

  • To maintain and preserve public order and security of local area before being handed over to the Armed Forces.
  • To lead and protect the citizens to a safer area.
  • War combatants and psyops
  • As "eyes" and "ears" of the military and the government
  • Help the armed forces to operate patrols, intelligence, security force, and to provide direct defense on all strategic interest in their area.

[edit] Strength

  • Current strength of RELA in terms of personnel as of 31st October 2007

Personnel

Overall 494,145
Platoons 9,688
Male 443,250
Female 50,895

[edit] Alleged Power Abuse?

In October 2007, members of the RELA corps arrested the wife of the Indonesian Education Attaché, Musliana Nurdin in the Chowkit district, Kuala Lumpur. The RELA corps suspected her as an illegal immigrant even though she had shown her diplomatic identity card. Musliana was only released several hours later after her son had brought her passport and showed it to them. The incident sparked sharp protests from Indonesians. Before Malaysia had a long history of Indonesian-workers (known as TKI in Indonesia) abuses by their Malaysians employers. Other alleged abuse cases to the visitors from USA, Europe, and Asia add the long list of RELA's questionable activities.

[edit] External links