A horrifying experience in Johor Bahru

It was the occasion of marriage of our close friends which brought us all the way to this state in the south.
I had been looking forward to this wedding; not just to grace the blessed union between both wonderful friends but also to the gathering of all my old friends whom I have rarely seen over this year.

It was definitely a heart-warming occasion to see one of my best girl friends getting married in style and to be able to help her out with it; which I shall blog about it soon with the photos as well.

After the wedding dinner, there was about 6 of us in the same car who decided to take the night further to explore one of the famous university hangout place in the other side of Johor Bahru; called the Anjung Warisan.
The other bunch of friends had no choice but to return to the hotel first as they had to return the car they were riding in to the groom's mother.

We proceeded; all 6 of us, to look for the place; with the guidance of 4 of the ex-UTM students in the car who were the ones who talked about the place.
The direction was to use the smaller lanes by the highway as the place was located within a secluded housing area.
Upon embarking on the little lane, we noticed two men on each side of the road stopping another car in front of us as we were approaching.

Instinctively, the guys (there happened to be 3 guys and 3 girls in the car) checked to see if all the car doors and windows were locked upon approaching the 2 men in front who did stop us; one of them walked to the middle of the road, put up his hand to put our car to a halt.

The man on our right ordered our friend, who was the driver to wind down his window.
The rest reminded him to only wind a fraction of the window and not all the way down to prevent any funny tricks played by this man in plain clothes.

The man requested for our identity cards for check, and one of my girl friends spoke from the back of the car
"Encik, mana ID? Sila tunjukkan pas pengenalan encik!"

The Malay man gave us cold look, especially at my friend and continued to demand for our identity cards, while my friend continued with the same persistence demanding for his identity pass to prove that he is a policeman as well.
"Tak boleh macam ini, Encik. Pak Lah sudah kata kena tunjukkan ID encik sebelum menghentikan kereta. Ini tak mengikut undang undang negara!"

The Malay man finally gave up after the argument with us and started to search for his ID in his shirt; and then taking out his ID from a small slit in the wallet.
He flashed the ID for a while at our window and demanded for our IC again.
My friend tried to take the ID from him, claiming that we couldn't see very well and we cannot believe that he is a real policeman.
After all, this is a rather lonely stretch of a road, and we do have the right to ignore him and drive straight to the police station should there be any arising issue.

The Malay man got rather frustrated and somehow told us to stop in front.
Our friend drove the car slowly ahead while most of us persuaded him to just ignore and just leave the place as it does not seem to be an actual operation by the authorities.
A few metres ahead, we spotted another Malay man by the road; with a walkie talkie who gave us a look as well.

We still drove past him slowly, without stopping although our friend believed that they are police due to the walkie talkie he had in his hand.
However, we were still not convinced as walkie talkies can be obtained anywhere and anyone can own it.

A little bit further, we start to see white police cars parked by the side of the road and there was indeed an Ops going on.
I tell you, I could really breathe in relief when I saw the cars!
I mean, I have never been fond of them anyway, and I have had this phobia since my last incident with these so-called law enforcers on the highway 3 years ago (but I still will not judge all of them based on my own prejudice, just that I never felt comfortable with them)

Anyway, we were flagged to the side by a man, this time, one in the full police uniform and as our friend wound down the window, we explained to him about our thoughts.
This policeman was rather kind in responding and he informed us that the men who stopped us earlier was higher in rank and was actually CID; which entitled them to be in plain clothes while on duty.

We explained that still, it is according to the country's enforced laws that plain clothes policemen had no right to stop us without first flashing their ID clearly in front of us.
Furthermore, with the arising number of crime cases in the country and the bogus policemen around, we couldn't help doubting the people who stopped us and if they are law enforcers, they wouldn't be going against the law, right?

The kind policemen just assured us that we were stopped due to the overload at the back of our car; where there were four of us.
According to him, this is against the law and we could be fined RM300.

(Someone please correct me, has the law been enforced? I thought it was announced in the newspapers that the law will be there but JPJ and the government will not enforce it due to the inconvenience imposed on families with children?
Is there something which is not known in the police force?
Somehow I felt they are never in sync with the approved laws or decisions made by the government)

Anyway, we didn't push the issue as the kind policeman just decided to let us go without any charge or summon; and just warned us.
Furthermore, it was probably due to our car plate which was registered in Penang that he didn't push the issue further.

Frankly, I was rather relieved when he returned all our ICs and let us off the hook.
I guess he realized that we were terrorized by the earlier so-called higher ranking officers who were obviously ignorant to the country's laws and the advice provided by their head to the public on avoiding bogus policemen.

After that, it was rather a gloomy mood and everyone was no longer enthusiastic to go to the place and yet, we couldn't turn back for fear of bumping into the operation again.
We went around the quiet and dark neighborhood, searching for a way out and miraculously, we found the place.
It was nothing but a unique tree house mamak hangout place which was rather quiet and desolated , surprisingly, since it was a Saturday night!

Anyway, we went in for a drink and tried to avoid the topic but ended up in hilarious results on how we should have responded to the police, thanks to our hilarious friend.
But it was definitely a horrifying experience for me, and I think it deepened my prejudice too!

Well, it was truly a horrid end to a lovely trip/wedding...and we were really affected somehow.
I am still thankful to God for looking after me that night and my friends, for I dare not imagine what could have happen had it been not an actual operation.

To all my friends out there, do be careful and remember to ask for their ID when you are stopped by plainclothes policemen.

Let this serve as a lesson/reminder to all of us and of course, can someone let those in the law know as well?