The police force should re-focus its attention on fighting crime instead of being ‘obsessed’ with BN's political opponents.

Making this call in a statement today, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng urged the federal government to increase the number of police personnel fighting crime from 14 percent to at least 50 percent.

NONE "Three shootings yesterday prove that rising crime is no longer a perception but an indictment of the police failure and the urgent need to move away from its unhealthy obsession (with) political opponents of BN," he said.

He was referring to the murder of Arab-Malaysian Development Bank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi in the centre of Kuala Lumpur yesterday, and two other incidents in Ipoh and Bukit Mertajam.

Lim said the police has been blaming the spate of violent crime on the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance (E0), as many ‘gangsters’ had been released from detention centres where they were being held without trial.

"The police can no longer blame the E0 abolition for the murder of Hussain, as he is no criminal but a respected international banker," noted Lim.

 

"These latest murders have shocked Malaysians who reaslise how seriously the federal government has failed to ensure public order and security.”

He said public confidence in the police force has waned, especially with the shooting of MyWatch chairperson R Sri Sanjeevan last Saturday.

‘Insufficient presence’

In a written parliamentary reply to the DAP’s Kulai parliamentarian Teo Nie Ching earlier this month, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had given a breakdown of the deployment of the 112,583 police personnel in uniform.

Ahmad Zahid had said 10,150 (or 9 percent) are in the Criminal Investigation Department; 4,224 (or 3.8 percent) in the Narcotics Criminal Investigation unit; and 1,663 (or 1.4 percent) in Commercial Investigation Department.

NONE However, he would not state how many are attached to the Special Branch, said Lim (left) .

"It is unacceptable that only 9 percent of the personnel are directly involved in fighting crime in the streets," he added.

"Even if we include (those in the) narcotics and commercial crime units, only 14.2 percent of the personnel are focused on fighting crime in the streets.”

Saying that the number is too low, Lim added that at least 56,000 personnel in uniform should be patrolling the streets.

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