Malay Mail - by The Malay Mail Team
KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council has reiterated its stand that the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) be disbanded and its financial resources are allocated towards strengthening the police force.
Its president Lim Chee Wee said the government should reconsider Rela’s relevance following the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance in December last year.
“The Malaysian Bar has consistently been calling for Rela to be disbanded because its services are no longer needed in the modern era of professional policing and community-based policing, and its abuses arising from poor recruitment, screening and training — the problems of which are too difficult to overcome short of disbanding it,” he said.
Lim said there were currently three million Rela members out of 27 million Malaysians.
“This effectively means that one out of 10 Malaysians are involved in Rela. This number is too big to manage,” he said.
The Bar’s call came in light of the death of 32-year-old Nigerian student Onochie Martins Nwanko, who was allegedly beaten up at a condominium on Saturday morning in Kajang by several Rela men after he had allegedly molested a female cleaner.
Lim also questioned the new National Key Results Area initiative enabling Rela members to wear police uniforms on joint patrols with policemen.
He said there was no need to boost Rela’s power when they were not even a recognised enforcing body.
“It would be difficult for regular Malaysians to differentiate between a real policeman and another with a Police Volunteer Reserve (PVR) badge,” he said.
Lim stressed that if a new law governing Rela isn’t passed by June 30, the government should disband it.
Under Article 150 of the Federal Constitution, laws enacted under the Emergency Ordinance are deemed to cease six months after the ordinance is repealed.
Deputy Home Minister Lee Chee Leong was recently quoted as saying that a new law governing Rela would be tabled in the next parliament session.
The Malay Mail had last week highlighted concerns over the decision to allow Rela and JPAM officers to wear police uniforms as part of joint patrols with the police under the PVR scheme.
Under the scheme, the Rela and JPAM members would have to go through a threeweek standard operating procedure training before donning police uniforms while maintaining their badges.
The joint patrols, comprising a team of four, would be headed by at least one policeman.
Senior police officers, as well as community leaders had expressed worries over the decision, claiming that apart from “cheapening” the police uniform, it could lead to abuse of power as well as complicate enforcement work.
Among the critics were former IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan, who had said the move would devalue the police force and that a common uniform system would only confuse the public.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council has reiterated its stand that the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) be disbanded and its financial resources are allocated towards strengthening the police force.
Its president Lim Chee Wee said the government should reconsider Rela’s relevance following the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance in December last year.
“The Malaysian Bar has consistently been calling for Rela to be disbanded because its services are no longer needed in the modern era of professional policing and community-based policing, and its abuses arising from poor recruitment, screening and training — the problems of which are too difficult to overcome short of disbanding it,” he said.
Lim said there were currently three million Rela members out of 27 million Malaysians.
“This effectively means that one out of 10 Malaysians are involved in Rela. This number is too big to manage,” he said.
The Bar’s call came in light of the death of 32-year-old Nigerian student Onochie Martins Nwanko, who was allegedly beaten up at a condominium on Saturday morning in Kajang by several Rela men after he had allegedly molested a female cleaner.
Lim also questioned the new National Key Results Area initiative enabling Rela members to wear police uniforms on joint patrols with policemen.
He said there was no need to boost Rela’s power when they were not even a recognised enforcing body.
“It would be difficult for regular Malaysians to differentiate between a real policeman and another with a Police Volunteer Reserve (PVR) badge,” he said.
Lim stressed that if a new law governing Rela isn’t passed by June 30, the government should disband it.
Under Article 150 of the Federal Constitution, laws enacted under the Emergency Ordinance are deemed to cease six months after the ordinance is repealed.
Deputy Home Minister Lee Chee Leong was recently quoted as saying that a new law governing Rela would be tabled in the next parliament session.
The Malay Mail had last week highlighted concerns over the decision to allow Rela and JPAM officers to wear police uniforms as part of joint patrols with the police under the PVR scheme.
Under the scheme, the Rela and JPAM members would have to go through a threeweek standard operating procedure training before donning police uniforms while maintaining their badges.
The joint patrols, comprising a team of four, would be headed by at least one policeman.
Senior police officers, as well as community leaders had expressed worries over the decision, claiming that apart from “cheapening” the police uniform, it could lead to abuse of power as well as complicate enforcement work.
Among the critics were former IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan, who had said the move would devalue the police force and that a common uniform system would only confuse the public.
No comments:
Post a Comment