We refer to an Utusan Malaysia article dated 21 March 2014, which reported that the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) would be establishing a special unit to monitor online activities of social media users.
According to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, this unit, called the Cyber Investigation Response Centre (CIRC), will be parked under the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID).
At the moment, online crimes are handled by the Cyber Crimes Unit in the PDRM, as well as other agencies such as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
Monitoring of social media supresses freedom of speech
Firstly, the establishment of such a unit will indirectly limit freedom of speech in this country. For years, Malaysians have been suppressed by draconian laws such as the Official Secrets Act, the Sedition Act, the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the Emergency Ordinance (EO).
Although the ISA and EO have now been abolished, new replacement laws such as the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act and the Prevention of Crime Act have allowed the government to continue the suppression of freedom of expression by applying the ISA and EO in all but name, especially against members of the opposition and social activists.
As it is, the Federal Government already has a firm grip on all mainstream media outlets such as newspapers, radio and television. According to the 2013 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, Malaysia’s press freedom ranking languishes at a lowly 145th in the world, behind even Bangladesh (144th) and Cambodia (143rd).
Focus on crime and not Facebook
Secondly, why are the police focusing their attention on social media such as Facebook and Twitter, especially when crime remains a national threat? In fact, even the 2005 Tun Dzaiddin Royal Commission of Inquiry report suggested that the police force should place fighting crime as its greatest priority.
To make matters worse, the fact that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) remains grossly undermanned has not been addressed. According to the Inspector-General of Police himself, an investigating officer (IO) is forced to handle up to 19 cases a month on average, while an IO in a crime hot spot has to handle between 20 to 30 cases a month. This is a far cry from what was proposed in the Tun Dzaiddin Report, which stated that each IO should ideally handle only five cases a month.
The same report also stated that the CID required 21,300 officers as at 2004. This requirement was stated 10 years ago, and until today the department has not only failed to achieve that target, it still lacks about 11,300 personnel.
It is clear that the police do not have enough officers to fight crime. Hence, is it not wiser for the police to channel their resources and attention towards strengthening the CID, instead of diverting focus towards chasing rumours on Facebook and Twitter?
Is the suppression of social media politically motivated?
Thirdly, the question also arises whether the establishment of the CIRC is politically motivated. Based on the results of the 13th General Election, Barisan Nasional suffered great losses amongst segments of society that are well-connected to the social media, such as urbanites and young people.
This is because the social media in Malaysia has transformed into a tool facilitating the spread of information that is free from censorship and control by the government, unlike the mainstream media which merely operates as the propaganda arm of the Barisan Nasional.
Thus, is the attempt to monitor the social media merely another way of intimidating Pakatan Rakyat supporters, as well as widening the government’s control over the spread of information?
Conclusion
We would like to stress that there is no need to establish the Cyber Investigation Response Centre at this moment, especially when we already have the MCMC to investigate cyber crimes.
As such, we call upon the PDRM to stop this move and to instead divert resources and personnel towards the campaign to fight crimes that threaten the safety of Malaysians.