DAP lawmaker Tony Pua slammed ex-IGP Abdul Rahim Noor today for backing a preventive detention law, saying it proved that the police lacked competence to decide who is guilty and who is not.

Pua said Abdul Rahim's defence of the police need for the law to combat rising gangsterism, in an interview with Mingguan Malaysia, is an outright admission that the police are not doing their real work, which is to gather evidence.

what is eo emergency ordinance 050307 “Instead of justifying the EO, the admission by the former IGP is the most damning piece of testimony of the competence and professionalism of the Royal Malaysian Police (that) has declined to deplorable standards,” the MP for Petaling Jaya Utara said in a media statement.

Pua cited Rahim’s explanation that police intelligence on crime could only be documented “with no further action possible”.

“That, however, can only mean that either the 'intelligence' isn’t very intelligent, or there isn’t anyone intelligent to exercise the 'intelligence' to fight crime.”

Pua added that Rahim himself “is the last person the government should take advice from on the Emergency Ordinance (EO), for he is the exemplification of why the EO must not be reinstated”.

He was referring to the case of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was beaten while in custody in 1998 despite evidence to the contrary provided by the police themselves.

NONE “The police had for the longest period denied any abuse on their part, and even suggested that Anwar had given himself the infamous black eye,” Pua said.

“Even the IGP lacks the competence and cannot be trusted to decide who is or is not guilty before a person is charged in court. Anwar Ibrahim, for example, has been acquitted of all charges against him.”

In an interview with Mingguan Malaysia , Abdul Rahim, who was inspector-general of police from 1994 to 1999, said preventive detention needs to be reinstated under a new Emergency Ordinance 1969 (EO) for the sake of combating the rise in gangsterism.

According to the former IGP, the police haves turned into mere observers, becoming completely helpless in crime prevention since the repeal of the EO.

The EO previously allowed for detention without trial but more than 2,000 detainees were released when the law was repealed as part of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s democratic reforms.

Pua further urged the government to adopt the attorney-general’s position in this matter, that “the existing laws are sufficient to tackle criminals”, and that “it is better to let more guilty people go free than to send the innocent to jail.”

He also backs the restructuring of the police force by reallocating more personnel to fight crime and the setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).