Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 8^th August 2009: 

Police, Home Minister and Prime Minister will not be able to hold their heads high in international community if Musa Hassan is renewed as IGP when under his three-year leadership, only 1% of the people feel safe while 97% feel unsafe from the high crime rate

The 10,000-strong Malaysian police force, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak will not be able to hold their heads high in international community if Tan Sri Musa Hassan is renewed as Inspector-General of Police next month when under his three-year leadership as the country No. 1 Cop, only 1% of the people feel safe while 97% feel unsafe from the high crime rate.

This result of the latest opinion poll of public feedback about the crime situation in the country could be dismissed as anti-police propaganda if it had been conducted under the auspices of opposition political parties or NGOs concerned about crime.

But this is not an option open to the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the Malaysian police force for this is the result of a poll conducted itself by the Home Ministry official website, http://www.ikdn.gov.my/.

Malaysia will become the laughing stock of the world, particularly the international policing community, if an IGP whose three years’ police leadership resulted in only 1% of respondents who felt safe while 97% felt unsafe because of the high crime rate in an official Home Ministry website could be rewarded with another extension of his renewal as IGP!

The sense of public safety of citizens, tourists and investors have deteriorated over the years according to official polls.

The Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission conducted a public opinion survey between 22nd November 2004 and 1 December 2004, and found that 89% of the 575 adult respondents from various parts of the country were “worried” to “extremely worried” about the occurrence of crime in their neighbourhood. Only 11% or a ratio of one in ten of the respondents were not worried. The level of worry was broadly similar across ethnic groups in urban areas from all 13 states and the Federal Territory.

The Commission published the details of the public opinion survey, viz:

Table - Ethnicity and Level of Worry

The Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission in its report of May 2005 observed:

“This very high level of worry is also a cause for deep concern, and should be addressed by PDRM.” (Ch. 3 Sec. 6.8 p. 62)

Instead of addressing and reducing the very high level of worry about public safety in his three years as IGP, Musa has achieved the opposite – cranking up the public worry about the lack of safety from crime and their fear of crime from 89% at the end of 2004 to the present 97%! In his three years as IGP, the crime situation has deteriorated from one in ten of the respondents who felt safe from crime to the dismal and scandalous one in 100 of the respondents who felt safe from crime!

The findings of the Home Ministry website opinion survey from 20th to 28th July 2009 are as follows:

20 Julai 2009 - 28 Julai 2009

Unless the Home Minister and the Prime Minister are to rubbish or discredit the findings of the Home Ministry official website opinion poll, how can they justify the renewal of Musa as IGP when:

• 97% or 9,729 out of 10,060 respondents felt unsafe because of the high crime rate, with only 1% or 89 respondents felt safe and 2% or 242 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

• 95% or 8,883 out of 9,319 respondents felt that the safety of the people was not guaranteed as compared to 3% or 248 respondents who felt it was still guaranteed, with 2% or 188 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

• 94% or 8,743 out of 9,261 respondents felt that government had not done its best to ensure that the safety of the people was at the best level with 2% or 185 respondents felt that the government had done its best, and 4% or 333 persons “uncertain”?

Any self-respecting and honourable IGP in these circumstances would have resigned or leave at the end of his tenure instead of lobbying for another term as IGP, blocking a new start for the police under a new IGP to revamp the entire police force to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police force capable of fulfilling the three core police functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and protect human rights.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor