It is time for the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan to resign when crime rampages on in the country beyond police control until even the Johore Baru South OCPD Asst Comm Zainuddin Yaakob was tied up and robbed at knife point in his house in Johore Baru on Thursday morning.
ACP Zainuddin was home alone when three men, believed to be Indonesians, tied him up and ransacked his home at about 5.45 am on Thursday, leaving later with some cash and valuables.
The tying-up and robbing at knife-point of an OCPD in his own house is not just a humiliating episode for the Malaysian police, but highlights the sheer inability of the police force to bring crime under check and control, especially in the several capitals of crime in the country.
One of the greatest failures of the Abdullah premiership is his failure to reduce crime to restore to Malaysians their fundamental right to be free from crime and the fear of crime, whether in the streets, public places or the privacy of their homes.
Although Abdullah started his premiership with the pledge to fight crime, he left office with Malaysians feeling even more unsafe from crime which has reached endemic dimensions.
Under Abdullah’s premiership, the police fought a losing war against the rising crime index, which had worsened from 156,315 cases in 2003 to crash through the 200,000 barrier for the first time in nation’s history.
Now, it is not only the ordinary citizens, visitors, tourists and investors who do not feel safe, even police personnel and police officers like the JB South OCPD are themselves victims of crime. Until recently, only ex-police officers fall victim to crime – like the former Penang Chief Police Officer who was killed when robbed in his Petaling Jaya home recently!
Abdullah did make an attempt to address the endemic crime problem at the beginning of his premiership, setting up the Royal Police Commission to revamp the police force.
However, the Royal Police Commission’s recommendations to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class police service to declare an all-out war against crime and to keep crime low was opposed by the police force, UMNO and UMNO Youth then led by the present Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, sabotaging the establishment of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).
Abdullah did not have the political will to implement the Royal Police Commission’s recommendations to establish a professional world-class police service to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights.
Does the new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has the political will to implement all the recommendations of the Royal Police Commission, in particular to set up the IPCMC?
The signs are not favourable, especially from the way the story of the tying-up and robbing of the JB South OCPD had been played down by the mainstream media.
A cold and wintry wind is blowing through the news rooms of all news media organisations, particularly the mainstream media – heralding the return of Mahathirism on news control and censorship to serve the interests of the political leaders in government rather than those of the people.