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Minister Zahid Hamidi admitted that some laws such as the now-abolished
Internal Security Act (ISA) and Emergency Ordinance (EO) are draconian,
but said Malaysia is not prepared to do without them.
Drawing comparisons with the New York Police Department (NYPD), he claims it has one officer per 35 citizens and high-definition CCTV cameras at every corner.
In Malaysia, he said, the police-to-citizen ratio is 750 to one, deploying fewer CCTVs that are also "the cheapest priced but in the end they could not be used".
"There is a gap. We want change, but we are not really ready. This is what is happening in this country... The police are toothless without these so-called draconian laws," he said.
However a check with the figures provided by NYPD’s website and the US Census Bureau suggests the police-to-citizen ratio in New York City is approximately one officer to 237 persons.
Zahid was addressing some 200 participants at the Crime Prevention Forum in Bandar Sunway, organised by the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation, Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, and Centre for Public Policy Studies.
More liberty, more crime?
Ahmad Zahid urged the forum’s participants, comprised primarily of law enforcement personnel and anti-crime NGO representatives, to propose what needs to be done to curb serious crime, including new preventive laws and strengthening existing laws.
This includes balancing the civil liberties against the need to maintain security, he said.
He
said he hopes the forum’s resolutions will be forwarded to the Home
Ministry and the Attorney-General’s Chambers to be formulated into
legislation, but that this would be done without giving emphasis on
detention without trial.
“We cannot compromise on detentions without trial. Detentions must be tried,” he said.
He added he will sit through the forum until the end to hear these proposals, but also urged the forum to support the police and not give negative comments on them.
“If (the comment is) negative, it must be constructive,” he said.
On a separate matter, he said the police has formed an elite task force of 400 personnel to tackle crime.
The unit reports directly to Bukit Aman. Half of them are tasked with drug-related offences while the other half tackles crime.
The centralisation, he said, is partly in response to the perception that state and district police are in cahoots with criminals.
He added that one of the new unit’s recent actions was the shootout in Sungai Nibong, Penang on Aug 19 that left five suspected gangsters dead.
Drawing comparisons with the New York Police Department (NYPD), he claims it has one officer per 35 citizens and high-definition CCTV cameras at every corner.In Malaysia, he said, the police-to-citizen ratio is 750 to one, deploying fewer CCTVs that are also "the cheapest priced but in the end they could not be used".
"There is a gap. We want change, but we are not really ready. This is what is happening in this country... The police are toothless without these so-called draconian laws," he said.
However a check with the figures provided by NYPD’s website and the US Census Bureau suggests the police-to-citizen ratio in New York City is approximately one officer to 237 persons.
Zahid was addressing some 200 participants at the Crime Prevention Forum in Bandar Sunway, organised by the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation, Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, and Centre for Public Policy Studies.
More liberty, more crime?
Ahmad Zahid urged the forum’s participants, comprised primarily of law enforcement personnel and anti-crime NGO representatives, to propose what needs to be done to curb serious crime, including new preventive laws and strengthening existing laws.
This includes balancing the civil liberties against the need to maintain security, he said.
He
said he hopes the forum’s resolutions will be forwarded to the Home
Ministry and the Attorney-General’s Chambers to be formulated into
legislation, but that this would be done without giving emphasis on
detention without trial.“We cannot compromise on detentions without trial. Detentions must be tried,” he said.
He added he will sit through the forum until the end to hear these proposals, but also urged the forum to support the police and not give negative comments on them.
“If (the comment is) negative, it must be constructive,” he said.
On a separate matter, he said the police has formed an elite task force of 400 personnel to tackle crime.
The unit reports directly to Bukit Aman. Half of them are tasked with drug-related offences while the other half tackles crime.
The centralisation, he said, is partly in response to the perception that state and district police are in cahoots with criminals.
He added that one of the new unit’s recent actions was the shootout in Sungai Nibong, Penang on Aug 19 that left five suspected gangsters dead.
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