The Home Ministry is being taken to task over its silence on the number of staff in the Special Branch (SB) and the Special Task Force (STF) departments.

Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said the last time that a headcount was provided was in 2011.

He added that the government had “refused” to provide the number of staff for both departments in the last Parliamentary sitting.

“These are the intelligence arms of the Royal Malaysian Police Department (PDRM) and the Special Branch, among others, conducts political spying operations, especially against the opposition,” said Sim during a press conference today.

He was referring to the increase (of shooting incidents) from January to April this year, where there are 38 cases, an average of two cases per week.

Sim said there are no official police statistics available for the time being, but the statistic he has had been derived from tabulating incidents of gunshot murder recorded by the Penang Institute.

NONE Sim said in the statistics that were provided to the MPs in Parliament, there are a few thousand police personnel “unaccounted for”.

“Hence, we can only guess these are the staff members of both the unreported departments, namely the SB and STF,” he added.

Sim said the reply that he received from the ministry was that the total number of unaccounted personnel was 7,642 police officers.

However, MPs Liew Ching Tong (Kluang) and Teo Nie Ching (Kulai), who also asked the same question in Parliament, were told there were 6,272.

“Curiously, the numbers given by the ministry are different. This, first and foremost, calls into question the integrity of the answers given by the government,” Sim said.

NONE Based on the figures he has for 2011-2013, Sim said there is an increase of 6.24 percent (583 officers) in the Criminal Investigation Department, while there is a “whopping” 46.3 percent increase in the SB and STF departments, an addition of 2,423 personnel in the “intelligence” departments.

“Even if we take the replies to Liew and Teo to be the actual one, the increase in CID staff is about 8.60 percent (804 officers) while the increase in the SB and STF is about 20.18 percent (1,053 officers),” said Sim.

“I hereby demand that the government confirm the numbers I provided above,” he added.

“And if it is true, this has to stop. Why is the government spending precious police resources to fight the political opposition rather than to fight crime?”