Klang MP Charles Santiago is calling for the entire police force in Perlis to be suspended until investigations into the human trafficking activities in the state have been completed.

“Malaysians are not ignorant. And therefore the police must cough out the truth. We deserve the right to know what happened in our backyard because of vulgar greed for money.

“And until investigations are complete, the entire police force in Perlis should be suspended without further delay,” he said in a statement today while slamming the government response on the issue.

He said there is clearly a failure of intelligence gathering of the police, and alleged the possibility the police and the government are hiding information to avoid further embarrassment.

He pointed to, among others, the inspector general of police Khalid Abu Bakar’s statement that the trafficking activities in Wang Kelian and Padang Besar are well known, but at the same time said that the trafficking camps were only found in May and not earlier.

This is despite locals having earlier handed over the camp’s survivors to the police, and the NGO Tenaganita informing the police of trafficking activities in the area in 2008, he said.

“One would think that the police would have followed up with investigations but there are no reports on this. But Khalid ( photo ) has been quick to gloss over these facts.

“Local media reports that 35 bodies have been exhumed from the 'slave holding camps'. They are indeed death camps.

“The police are caught with their pants down. They gave access to reporters to the camp sites but when the tough questions came they went cold. This is because there is evidence of failed intelligence gathering by the police,” said the DAP lawmaker.

Charles ( photo ) also similarly lambasted Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Jaafar and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim over their statements on the camps.

He referred to Wan Junaidi’s statement that the police were not aware of the camps due to the difficult jungle terrain in the area, and Shahidan’s claim that the police personnel who are being investigated for possible links with the trafficking activities, were only motivated by greed and were not aware of the murder and torture that allegedly took place in the camps.

Charles said Wan Junaidi’s statement is “absolute nonsense”, and Shahidan didn’t explain how he would be privy to the psyche of the police personnel involved.