"RELA Corps" is a paramilitary 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. Besides that they are also tasked with security works at times. During times of war, they are absorbed into the Malaysian Army as support groups despite their law enforcing duties. They are also tasked to do SAR works if needed.

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

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.

Strength

• Current strength of RELA in terms of personnel as of 30 September 2009

Personnel

Overall	596,799
Platoons	10,780
Male	524,047
Female	72,752

Alleged Power Abuse

In October 2007, members of the RELA corps arrested the wife of the Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n Education Attaché

Attaché

Attaché is a French term in diplomacy referring to a person who is assigned to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency...

, Musliana Nurdin in the Chow Kit

Chow Kit

Chow Kit is a sub-district in central Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is located around Jalan Chow Kit and is enclosed by the parallel streets of Jalan Raja Laut and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. It is named after the tin miner and municipal councillor Loke Chow Kit. Today the area features a large...

 district, Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

. 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

Passport

A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....

 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. The same cases happened to other expatriates when they only brought expatriate ID, most of RELA corps can not recognize this ID as replacement of passport. This is due to lack of RELA training leading to arresting of the expatriates with valid ID (expatriate ID, expatriate card).

External links

• news about RELA in Aljazeera
• Human Right Watch on RELA abussive
• Malaysian Restaurant sues Rela - International Herald Tribune
• Malaysian Human Right Watch on the rape case by Rela volunteers in Malaysia
• Rela Q&A mfasia.com
• "Istri Diplomat Indonesia Diperlakukan Kasar" (Wife of Indonesian Diplomat treated Harshly), Tempointeraktif.com, 2007-03-10
• New York Times article about Rela
• Malaysia Bar on RELA
• UK Channel 4 - Malaysia: Refugees for Sale