Former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan has denied saying the police had been late in handling the trespassing of the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Seafield, Subang Jaya on Nov 26 as well as the riot the on the following day.

He took to Twitter to clarify his statement.

“I didn’t say police is late (sic), action should be taken to arrest rioters as soon as possible when the incident happened,” he wrote.

He elaborated on the three priorities police must take note of during a riot situation.

In order of importance, the priorities are to “save lives and property of the victims of such act(s)”; to “identify the rioters, its leaders and the person inciting them”; and to “disperse the riot and to make arrest(s) in situ”.

 Yesterday, the New Straits Times Online had reported Musa as saying that “late action” by the police had prolonged the process of identifying those who committed offences during the riots.

“It is therefore most appropriate if the action could be taken earlier based on the new information, instead of detecting individuals when the information was no longer fresh,” he was quoted as saying.

Musa had drawn a comparison to how he had handled similar situations in the past. 

“For example, during my tenure with PDRM, a total of 130 individuals were arrested during the Hindraf gathering at Ampang Park on the day itself.

“The situation was similar to the temple riot. Participants at the Hindraf gathering injured several policemen and firemen and damaged public as well as police vehicles.

“However, at that moment, all the information was still 'hot' (new) because we did a major arrest before we conducted further investigations,” he added.

However, Musa, who served as IGP from 2006 to 2010, chose not to blame the police as he was confident they have their own strategies.

Questions raised

During the riot, questions were raised as to why the police did not swing into action earlier to disperse the crowd since there were members of the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) present at the scene.

Commenting on this, inspector-general of police Mohamad Fuzi Harun had said police refrained from using water cannons to avoid escalating the situation.

“Are we going to use water cannons on a place of worship? Is it logical to do so? If we did that, we will invite (retaliation) and what not. We must act according to the situation at hand," he added.

Responding to another question on why the police did not stop the rampage, Fuzi said it is easier said than done, and complained about how the police are blamed regardless of what action is taken.

"It's easy for you to say. It's not that easy (for us) because (the incident took place) near a place of worship. If we had used force, we would be blamed. If we help, we would be blamed as well," he added.

Meanwhile, Musa suggested that the police take a holistic approach in gathering information in connection with the riot which led to the death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim.

“I hope that police will work on all the information they have to identify those involved in the riot.

“The investigating officers also need to make sure they have strong evidence so those who killed Adib would be served justice,” he added.

Police have claimed that Adib was dragged out of his vehicle and assaulted. He succumbed to his injuries on Monday night.