Hishammuddin rails against police-bashing
By Shannon Teoh | The Malaysian Insider May 09, 2010

LONDON, May 9 — Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein last night urged Malaysians to defend and not demonise the police force, now under increasing public pressure to reform after the two recent shootings of teenagers.

The Home Minister also said that instead of constantly attacking the police, the public must support the force as it was one of the institutional pillars that formed the spine of the country.

“I want to assure everybody, that the morale of the police also has to be safeguarded and balanced. Clear demonisation does not help anybody,” Hishammuddin told some 100 students at the Malaysian Students Department here.

“Malaysia is in transition. In times of change, there is always a tendency to demonise these institutions without basis, without study, discussion and understanding,” he said of institutions such as law enforcement and the judiciary.

The recent death of 14-year-old Aminulrasyid Amzah and yesterday’s shooting of 17-year-old Mohd Azizi Aziz at the hands of the police has led to public anger with the police who are already having to deal with negative perception over crime levels, custodial deaths and corruption.

“It was a tragic shooting incident,” Hishammuddin said of Aminulrasyid’s death and insisted that there would be no cover-up and that the panel established to investigate is credible.

He pointed out that policemen who have been shot did not get public sympathy.

“At the same time, the aide-de-camp of the Tengku Mahkota of Kelantan was shot in cold blood in the middle of the road. But he does not get the same treatment from the public who only want to know if it is linked to the current controversy in the Kelantan royal family,” he said, referring to Kelantan palace guard Ramli Mohamad who was shot recently.

“Just because he is a policeman does this mean he does not deserve sympathy? So let’s not get emotional,” said Hishammuddin, who was made home minister in the Najib administration.

Admitting that “the system needs to be sorted out” and that he did not “condone something that works above the law” especially by law enforcers themselves, the minister said that institutions needed to be built and there were no immediate solutions.

“We need people who are given trust to be responsible for it but not be dictated by the politics of the day or the flavour of the month. These institutions are going to be here longer than the politicians,” said Hishammuddin, whose father Tun Hussein Onn was the country’s third prime minister.

He also declared that the police had performed a perfect 10 in areas that “you will never see, you will never hear, you will never know” such as counter-terrorism.

But the Umno vice-president admitted that with regards to street crime, he would only give the police a six.

However, he said that the level of street crimes was exaggerated by the continuous chattering that made it seem worse.

“Most victims are women. What do women do? They go to the hairdressers… they chit-chat and suddenly it is everywhere and cause people to fear,” he joked.

He added that the Attorney-General and Chief Justice would also have to do their part in ensuring that crimes were prosecuted and that court dates were fixed and backlogs cleared.

He told the crowd of mainly students that the Home Ministry had targeted a reduction of street crime by 20 per cent by the end of the year and crime in general by five per cent for the next three consecutive years.

Hishammuddin asked for patience as the last time the police had a full intake was during the time of the May 13, 1969 race riots.

He explained that due to the stability of the country after that, funds were diverted into development and education instead of reinforcing the police which would have led to criticism of creating a police state in times of relative safety.

Therefore, time is needed to create the necessary police presence to address crime levels.

“I tell the police not to get demoralised as the more people attack them, the more allocation we get,” he added.

Hishammuddin also announced that officers working at desk jobs in the headquarters in Bukit Aman would be substituted by civil servants, resulting in 7,000 personnel redeployed on the streets.