The government will not wait for the introduction of a new act and would instead use the existing legal framework to fight major crimes in the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the 'Prevention of Crime Act 1959' existing in the legal system of the country but was not applied now could be implemented quickly for the purpose.

The matter he said was discussed in the Cabinet meeting Wednesday following a statement by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak that there were many incidents of crime lately involving firearms.

"We are serious about crime taking place now as there were major criminal acts such as murder and some had remarked that Malaysia was like a cowboy country.

"What happened is heart wrenching which require us to take tougher and bolder actions," he said at a breaking of fast with the Johor state government and Johor Umno in Johor Baharu.

The ceremony was attended by Johor Menteri Besar, Mohamed Khaled Nordin who is also Johor Umno Liaison chairman together with the deputy liaison chief Latiff Ahmad.

Cabinet wants clampdown on firearms

Muhyiddin said the cabinet also discussed stepping up enforcement and tightening control of firearms smuggling at the country's porous border to curb arms smuggling.

At the same time, he had requested the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) chief executive officer, Idris Jala to relook the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) on reducing crimes.

He said if attention in the past was devoted to overcoming street crimes such as snatch thefts and robberies, the time has come to tackle serious crime.

According him, efforts would be stepped up including beefing up the police force with more trained personnel and increasing law enforcement assets.

   

On Tuesday, Najib said the government was prepared to provide whatever was required by the police force to improve their effectiveness and combat prevailing major crimes lately.

The Prime Minister's statement followed several cases of murder involving firearms including the murder of Arab-Malaysia Bank founder, Hussin Ahmad Najadi, 75, at Jalan Ceylon Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Apart from major crimes, Muhyiddin said the government took a serious view of corruption which could be wrongly interpreted as being ignored by the

government.

"We need to state that such matters have been taken seriously and the government wanted to stem it from spreading further which could become a major problem for the country one day," he said.

However, he stressed that all these efforts could not only be left solely on government but needed strong cooperation from the various community groups.

- Bernama