The next parliamentary sitting will deliberate on amending the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 to give more power to the police to fight crime, said Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

"The law, which is being used in the peninsula, will be extended to Sabah and Sarawak," he said in his speech at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang today.

However, Ahmad Zahid said the power of the police to remand suspects for up to 72 days, with a court order as stipulated in the Act, would not be extended.

azlan He said additional powers are necessary for the police to address the increasing crime rate, as seen in the spate of shooting incidents.

Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar has said the Act would be used to tackle serious crimes.

Asked about the major amendment, Zahid declined to reveal the details, saying this is within the attorney-general’s jurisdiction.

However, he confirmed that the amendment would be about empowering the police to deal with crime in the aftermath of the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance.

“There will be some kind of preventive measures but the law will still follow the procedure of detention and will allow for trial,” he said.

“The amendments won’t extend beyond the 72 days' detention as that is enough for police to complete their investigation."

Zahid expressed hope that the proposed amendment of the PCA will not only be accepted by BN lawmakers, but also by those in the opposition front.

“This is a matter of fighting crime,” he noted.

He reminded all that since criminals are “colour blind” when committing crime, police will also take the  same approach and will act against whoever breaches the law without looking at the racial identity.

“With the amendments, we hope police will get their teeth and bite back to enforce the law,” Zahid quipped.

Providing protection to 'underground' groups?

On the complaints lodged by three groups that their logos are similar to those among the 49 secret societies revealed by the police, Zahid did not rule out the possibility that they may be providing protection to the “underground” organisations.

“The Registrar of Societies (ROS) told me that three organisations are registered, but they may be registered as religious bodies or other groups to cover up for those secret groups,” he claimed.

If the claims by the ROS are true, Zahid said the authorities will probe and act against the groups.

“We don’t want certain organisations to be registered to formalise those secret societies and their unlawful activities,” he said.

NONE On Operasi Cantas to weed out gangsters, Zahid said: “As long as the public are not satisfied with the security level, I will not be satisfied with it either.

“We are conducting a very structured survey based on structured respondents to check the public satisfaction level on crime prevention and security.

“If it exceeds 90 percent, then I would say the operation is satisfactory."

Zahid said the security level satisfaction level was only 30 percent before Ops Cantas , adding that his department will announce the latest findings soon. It has yet to set any timeline for the operation.