Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has borne out my contention in my response on the same day to the keynote address by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to the 13th Invest Malaysia conference where he portrayed me as the “most powerful person” in Malaysia who could make a former Prime Minister and two Deputy Prime Minister as my stooges and puppets.

I said that Najib’s greatest enemy does not come from DAP or Pakatan Harapan but he himself, simply because he has zero credibility – and that applies to his Ministers and the Najib administration as well.

Yesterday, Zahid said a skeptical public still sees the police as ineffective despite cutting the national crime rate by 47% in the past eight years.

Zahid said police effectiveness in cutting crime just through a reduction in the statistics is not enough as those involved in fighting crime must do more engagement and adopt a friendlier approach when dealing with the public.

Zahid said public perception towards the police was still “not as positive as it should be”.

“The Royal Malaysian Police is acknowledged as the best in Asean. This is an international recognition but not the general perception.
“My estimate is that only 20% are positive about the police,” he added.

Zahid is barking up the wrong tree, as public confidence in the police capability to fight and reduce the crime rate is not a mere public relations exercise, of friendly public engatgement.
I myself do not believe that the Police have cut down the national crime rate by 47% in the past eight years.

How many Barisan Nasional Ministers and MPs believe that crime rate in the country has been slashed by 47% in the past eight years – when more and more Ministers and VIPs are guarded and surrounded by more security personnel than eight years ago?

If Zahid is right that the Malaysian Police is acknowledged as the best in ASEAN, then let him present the facts, statistics and acknowledgements in a formal report to Parliament.

I offer three suggestions to help Malaysians believe that Royal Malaysian Police is the best police force in ASEAN, viz:

• firstly, declare RMP mission to make Malaysia safest place in the world;

• secondly, submit annual police reports to Parliament; and

• thirdly, set up a Parliamentary Select committee on Police which will have the responsibility to oversee police matters.