By Lim Kit Siang
The passage of the Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (SIAP) Bill by Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday is the last nail in the coffin of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) proposed by the Royal Police Commission more than four years ago in May 2005.
It also marks the failure of the Barisan Nasional government and the police leadership to fully honour and implement the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission set up by former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during his “First 100 Days” to revamp and reform the police, which had raised such high hopes and expectations among Malaysians creating such a national euphoria that Abdullah won an unprecedented landslide victory in the March 2004 general elections winning over 91% of the parliamentary seats!
Who must take the greatest responsibility for such a great national letdown and disappointment, if not the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan?
This is why I said more than once in Parliament in the debate on SIAP Bill that there are over 100 reasons why the country needs a new Inspector-General of Police to set the police force on a new course of direction, with new commitment and vision, which can win public confidence where Malaysians regard the police as their friend and protector – a sentiment Malaysians have lost for over a decade since their loss of two fundamental rights, the right to be free from crime and to be from the fear of crime!
What are the major failures of Musa as Inspector-General of Police?
The three core functions proposed by the Police Royal Commission of Inquiry reflect the three biggest failures of Musa as IGP.
In its report in May 2005, the Police Royal Commission proposed “As an immediate measure, PDRM should target a minimum of 20 per cent decrease in the number of crimes committed for each category within 12 months of this Report’s acceptance and implementation.”
The latest statistics available to the Police Royal Commission at the time was the 156,455 incidence of crime in 2004, which was an increase of 29 per cent from 121,176 cases in 1997.
This was what the Police Royal Commission said:
“The increase seriously dented Malaysia’s reputation as a safe country. Malaysians in general, the business sector and foreign investors grew increasingly concerned with the situation. The fear was that, if the trend continues, there would be major social and economic consequences for Malaysia. A survey of 575 respondents from the public carried out by the Commission clearly demonstrates the extremely widespread concern among all ethnic groups and foreign residents. Between 82.2 per cent and 90 per cent of the respondents, or 8 to 9 persons in every 10, were concerned with the occurrence of crime.” (3.1 p.108 Report)
From the latest statistics given in Parliament, crime index have galloped to break the 200,000 mark, with the incidence of crime shooting up to 209,582 in 2007 and 211,645 in 2008.
Instead of achieving the Police Royal Commission’s target of reducing the intolerably high incidence of crime of 156,455 cases in 2004 by 20 per cent in 12 months (i.e. 125,164 cases), the reverse took place. In the four years after the Royal Police Commission Report, crime index kept “reaching for the stars” . In the seven years from 1997 to 2004, crime index increased by 29%, but in the four years from 2004 to 2008 crime index increased by 35.5%.
How can an Inspector-General of Police who presided over such a deterioration in the crime situation demand an extension of this renewed term of Inspector-General of Police in September?
On the second core function to eradicate corruption, Musa Hassan has also failed. In fact, I had called Musa in Parliament as a ‘lobbyist” for mega-contracts, whether for a proposed RM20 billion police helicopter project or the RM4.2 billion “E-Police Force Solution”, and I have not received any satisfactory answer from Home Minister.
On the third core function to uphold human rights, clearly the Police Royal Commission’s proposal that the police officers should undergo human rights “sensitization” orientation courses have fallen on deaf ears, with police violation of human rights in recent months most blatant and flagrant – with indiscriminate police arrests of Malaysians for wearing black, lighting candles, singing birthday songs and the deployment of hundreds of police personnel who should be catching criminals but were dispatched instead to frustrate the holding of DAP dinners, creating the new phenomenon firstly that Malaysians can eat but cannot talk and later that Malaysians cannot even eat!
I said that more than a hundred reasons can easily be given as to why the country needs a new IGP and a new police leadership, especially in his shocking failure to lead an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class police service as proposed by the Police Royal Commission!
I welcome Malaysians to come to my blog to give their reasons why the country needs a new IGP and a new police leadership, so that Malaysians, visitors and investors can feel safe again in this country!
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