“This white man came into the station, so I greeted him as usual, ‘Hi, how are you, what can I do for you’. He takes a look at me and replied ‘I’m looking for a real police officer.’”
Sam turned and calmly walked to the main office, and told the other officers that the man had asked for the ‘real police.’
“One of the other officers comes out and tells the man, ‘Sam is the only real police officer. We don’t have any other real ones here.’ They have always supported me, we fight the discrimination together.”
That was 13 years ago but his strength in the face of discrimination has never wavered. Last week, Muar-born Sam, 60, became the first person of colour to be named WA Officer of the Year, an honour he earned through his commitment to equality in policing and migrant communities.
Being a police officer was his “childhood dream,” he told FMT, a dream that he managed to achieve in Malaysia before leaving the force in order to better support his family.
“I joined the Royal Malaysia Police in the 1980’s. As a constable, I was making RM275 a month, and after deductions there would only be about RM180 left. I wanted to share some with my parents, but there was so little.”
Sam ended up moving on, training dolphins for a while before becoming a salesman, but since emigrating to Australia in 2005, he went back to doing what he loves.
At the age of 45, he joined the Western Australian police, passing his physical and psychological tests, and was deployed to the frontline.
As a senior constable with the WA police Diversity & Engagement Unit, he’s devoted his time to helping the migrant communities who often fear the police and distrust the system, relating to them as a fellow foreigner and helping to teach them about the local laws and their rights, efforts that did not go unnoticed by the top brass.
“I would pass out my business card to people, and I’d tell them to text me or ring if they ever had any questions. I used to get so many (calls), so eventually we set up the FAQ guides on social media for people to use.”
And while being a member of a minority community has helped him connect with the community, he’s glad it hasn’t affected his life in the police station.
“Some days I will bring my nasi lemak to office,” he said, “and even with the smell of the sambal and the ikan bilis, nobody makes any comments. Everyone is very tolerant of each other.”
While Sam has no plans to return to Malaysia, with his three children all over the age of 30 and hoping to forge their own careers in Australia, he admits that while you can take the boy out of Muar, you can’t take the Muar out of the boy.
“I’m still a kampung boy at heart,” he says, chuckling as he recounts how he eagerly awaits the four weeks a year he spends in his hometown, catching up with relatives and old friends and indulging on roti canai and teh tarik.