Police have failed to tackle issue of rising crime
Ranjit Singh, TMI
Three shootings yesterday showed that police have failed to tackle the issue of rising crime in the country, said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng who added that using the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance as a reason for this is unacceptable.
The shooting of Arab-Malaysian Development Bank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi is proof that the escalating crime was not due to gangland murders as claimed by police.
“Blaming the abolition of the EO as the main reason for the increased crimes and gangland murders was not acceptable as yesterday’s murder of the prominent banker proved otherwise.
“Police credibility had also plunged to new lows with the shooting of MyWatch chief R. Sri Sanjeevan after it was revealed of possible police links to the underworld,” Lim said in a statement.
Yesterday alone, apart from Hussain, a security firm owner was shot and killed in Ipoh while another victim was shot as he was driving in Bukit Mertajam. He survived.
He said these recent cases clearly showed that police were more inclined to act against the political opponents of the Barisan Nasional rather than address the issue of escalating crime.
Lim who is also the Bagan MP pointed out that in a written reply to DAP MP for Kulai Teo Nie Ching in Parliament recently, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zaid Hamidi had said that only 9 per cent of the entire police force comprising 112,583 police personnel, were directly involved in fighting crime.
The statistics showed that 10,150 (9 per cent) are in the Criminal Investigation Department,4,224 (3.8 percent) in the Narcotics Criminal Investigation and 1,663 (1.4 percent) in Commercial Crimes Investigation Department.
The Home Minister refused to mention how many police personnel were in the Special Branch.
Lim said that it was unacceptable that only 9 per cent are directly involved in fighting crime on the streets.
