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Abdullah should make public Royal Police Commission Interim Report to
allow Malaysians to decide for themselves whether Malaysia has the cleanest,
non-corrupt and incorruptible police force as suggested by the Deputy IGP or
whether corruption permeates every level of the police force Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Petaling Jaya, Monday): Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Sedek Mohd Ali said on Saturday that the Royal Commission on the Police Force had made a “sweeping statement” when it said that corruption existed at all levels of the police force. He said that probably, there is one case of corruption out of every 1,000 complaints and it should not be made to represent the whole police force.
This is the first top police leadership response to the statement by the Chairman of the Royal Police Commission, Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, after presentation of the commission interim report to the Yang di Pertuan Agong that the commission’s feedback from 26 public inquiries across the country and meetings with non-government organizations is that corruption exists at every level of the police force, and in particular in six areas, the commercial crimes division, narcotics department, logistics department, anti-vice, gambling and secret societies division and traffic police.
Who is right – the Royal Police Commission or the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, who believes that complaints about corruption is only one in a thousand or an infinitesimal 0.1 per cent, which would qualify the Malaysian Police to lay claim to be among the cleanest, non-corrupt and incorruptible police force in the world, if not as the world’s No. 1!
If Malaysia has a police force which is among the cleanest, non-corrupt and incorruptible police force in the world as suggested by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, then Malaysia’s ranking in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index would not have fallen so precipitously from 23rd place in 1995 to 37th place in 2003.
What Malaysians find most disappointing is the lack of a commensurate response from the government to the serious finding by the Royal Police Commission that corruption permeates every level of the police force, although the nation was promised an all-out war against corruption in the recent general election..
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in response to the Deputy IGP’s comments that the commission interim report was not comprehensive and not focused on ways to improve the police image, said that the report by the Royal Police Commission that corruption existed at all levels of the force was only a preliminary report, and that the commission’s subsequent reports will be on how work procedures in the police force can be improved further.
Singularly lacking is the vision, mission and fire to eradicate corruption in the police force and the anger and outrage at the finding that corruption existed at every level of the force – as if he would only surprised if the commission had come to any other conclusion.
The comment by the Deputy Internal Security Minister, Datuk Nor Omar that the commission interim report was a balanced one, and that it was just that certain issues were highlighted by the media, is most incomprehensible and irresponsible especially when the commission interim report had never been made public, whether to the media or the Malaysian citizenry. Abdullah should not delay any further and take the decision to make public the Royal Police Commission Interim Report to allow Malaysians to decide for themselves whether Malaysia has the cleanest, non-corrupt and incorruptible police force as suggested by the Deputy IGP or whether to agree that corruption permeates every level of the police force! |