I WAS on my way home with my 8-year-old and 13-year-old daughters, exiting from the Pinggiran Batu Caves residential area via a main road heading to Taman Sri Gombak residential area, at 12.25am on Jan 13 when I came upon a police roadblock.

Perhaps, it was a routine check on the drivers’ licences or maybe to look for Sharlinie Mohd Nashar, who has been missing since Jan 9. (There was an all-points-bulletin issued to all police personnel to be on the lookout for the missing child.)

I did not switch on the interior lights and the policeman and the policewoman did not have a torchlight with them.

I thought it strange that they did not have one since I have been stopped many times at roadblocks mounted either by the police or the Road Transport Department and they were usually prepared.

The policeman took a peek through the windows to check the backseat occupants, looked for about 15 seconds and was duly satisfied that everything was okay.

It saddened me that neither he nor his female colleague thoroughly checked on my daughters.

Am I wrong to say that they should have taken a pro-active measure by asking me to pull over to check on my daughters to make sure they are mine and not someone else’s?

M.F., Kuala Lumpur

Source: NST – January 23, 2008