A parliamentary roundtable of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat MPs, NGOs, civic organisations and stakeholders will be convened in a fortnight on whether Malaysia should have a new Inspector-General of Police to provide new leadership to roll back the tide of crime in the last five years and present a new image of democratic policing as well as who among the serving top police officers should be handed the baton of IGP.
To lobby for a second renewal of his term as IGP, Tan Sri Musa Hassan is now talking about the police giving priority to stamping out street crimes, when he should be explaining what success he had done as IGP since his first appointment in September 2006 as well as his two-year extension from September 2007 in rolling back the tide of crime, especially street crimes, in the country!
In fact, street crimes became worse in the nation’s history during Musa’s tenure as IGP in the past three years and on each of the three core functions which the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission had outlined as the priority tasks of the police force – to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights – Musa failed in everyone of them!
When Musa was first appointed IGP, I publicly congratulated him in a statement dated 8th September 2006, stressing that “the question uppermost for Malaysians is whether Musa’s promotion would make any difference in the law-and-order situation in the country – whether they can look forward to a safe and low-crime Malaysia, which must be regarded as the most fundamental of all human rights of Malaysians but which will also affect Malaysia as a investment centre, tourist destination and international educational hub for foreign students”. When Musa was given a two-year extension as IGP on the expiry of his term in September 2007, Musa declared that he would make the criminals “fear the police, every second of their lives”.
Musa failed miserably on both scores, as today, it is not the criminals who fear the police “every second of their lives” but in many instances, the other way round.
As the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the Police Force Commission had given their backing for Musa’s second extension as IGP, have they considered Musa’s failed KPIs in fighting crime, with the crime and the fear of crime situation worse than the pre-Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission period before 2004 although police pay rise had since increased by some 50% with the trebling of police allocations to RM8 billion under the Ninth Malaysia Plan as compared to the previous Eighth Malaysia Plan?
The crime situation became so bad under his tenure as IGP that it was not only the ordinary Malaysians who felt unsafe whether in the streets, public places or the privacy of their homes, even serving and former top police officers became victims of crime – like the former Inspector-General of Police, Tun Haniff Omar and the former Penang Chief Police Officer, Datuk Albert Mah who was killed in his Petaling Jaya home in an armed robbery both in 2007,as well as the unprecedented cases of the Johore Baru South OCPD Asst Comm Zainuddin Yaakob tied up and robbed at knifepoint in his house in Johore Baru in May 2009 and the Tawau acting OCPD Supt Ramli Ali Mat who was stabbed in his house in Tawau in a burglary attack by five men in January this year.
The time has come for full national consultation and discussion on the police force the country needs 52 years after nationhood, whether Musa’s renewal for another term as IGP going into the fourth and fifth year as the No. 1 top police officer in the land is the answer to the problem of endemic crime as well as a police force capable of understanding the modern concepts of Democratic Policing.
Furthermore, whether there is none among the serving top police officers who could be handed the baton of Inspector General of Police.
Those who are interested in attending the Parliamentary Roundtable on whether Musa should have his term as IGP extended further or whether the country needs a new IGP from among the current crop of top police officers should contact their respective MPs for further details.