Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang has accused Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of "lacking in vision, mission and fire" to eradicate corruption in the police force.

Lim, who is also DAP leader, was commenting in a press statement today on the findings of the Special Police Commission that corruption exists at every level of the police force.

The opposition leader lamented that Abdullah exhibited little "anger and outrage" when reacting to the commission's interim report "as if he would only be surprised if the commission had come to any other conclusion".

Last Monday, the commission revealed that it found endemic corruption in the police's commercial crimes, traffic, narcotics, logistics, placement and promotion division as well as the investigating department of Unit D7, which probes vice, gambling and triad activity.

The Special Commission to Enhance the Management and Operations of the Police Force - as it is known in full - was set up by Abdullah following widespread complaints against the police.

The commission, which was tasked to provide recommendations on how to improve the police force, had sent its interim report to the King and Abdullah last week, and will be expected to hand in its full report early next year.

Public tiff

Lim made his remarks in the wake of a public tiff between the commission chairperson, Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, and deputy police chief Mohd Sedek Mohd Ali.

Mohd Sedek had accused the commission of making a "sweeping statement" on the issue of police corruption.

According to deputy inspector-general of police, while there was one case of graft out of every 1,000 complaints, "it should not be made to represent the whole police force".

"Who is right - the Royal Police Commission or the deputy IGP, 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!" asked Lim.

Lim advised the police to do away with their denial syndrome as rampant corruption in the police force was not open to much dispute.

"In 1997, for instance, the police tops the list in the Anti-Corruption Agency's 'Top 10' government departments and agencies most prone to corruption," he said.

Most corrupt

The police also ranked as the most corrupt of all government agencies in a 2002 survey conducted jointly by the Malaysian Institute of Management and the Kuala Lumpur Society for Transparency and Integrity.

"Abdullah should not delay any further and must 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," said Lim.

The government has yet to openly disclose the findings and the recommendations of the commission's interim report.