.As for commanding respect in the SAF,it is usually those Commanders in the combat units who refrain that find it hard control his troops effectively.Where you use your language and how you use it depends on the dynamics the group.Musa lamented that in the war against crime, the police are at times frustrated by some politicians who want the police to keep one eye open and one eye closed . (Sin Chew)
This is most shocking. Musa should not be lamenting about the close-one-eye syndrome in the police frustrating the campaign against crime. He should have declared as the Inspector-General of Police that he would no more tolerate such â close-one-eye syndrome, whether caused by interfering politicians, corruption or rogue policemen.
Musa should have gone one step further publicly name the police officials and the interfering politicians who had acted against the public interest in their close-one-eyeconspiracy to frustrate the forces of law and order.
Both parties in the close-one-eyesyndrome, whether the police or the interfering politicians, are breaking the law and committing serious offences in frustrating the police war against crime.
Musa’s lament proved that the Royal Police Commission entrusted with the task of making proposals to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class police service had been both a waste of time and public resources as well as a great letdown of public expectations that some 21 months after the Royal Commission Report, public confidence have reached a new crisis point.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40833 (International news agency HQ in Rome)
POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Rampant Crime Turns Main Election Issue
By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA
LUMPUR, Jan 18 (IPS) - As election fever grips the country, with polls
widely expected mid-March, the country's seemingly unstoppable
escalation in violent crime is turning into the main plank of the
opposition's campaign.
Opposition parties have now launched a nationwide ‘Good
Cops, Safe Malaysia’ campaign distributing leaflets, organising forums
and holding ‘meet-the-people’ sessions to persuade voters to show their
displeasure at the upcoming polls.
Several recent public opinion polls also indicate that crime
has turned the voter's number one concern, followed by rising food and
fuel prices.
For most Malaysians the country's racial and religious differences,
that usually hog the domestic and international headlines, is not as
worrying an issue as was previously thought.
"I am more worried about the safety of my children than ethnic strife,"
said accounts executive Melissa Chong, who works for a local bank.
"The crime rate has jumped 45 percent since Abdullah (Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi) took over in 2003," she told IPS when met at an
opposition organised forum on safe living in the capital.
"The statistics show nine girls and women are raped every
day," she said. "This is the scariest situation ever since independence
50 years ago." (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Across the country ordinary citizens are forming voluntary
neighborhood patrols called ‘Rukun Tetangga’ while others are cordoning
off their areas with barbed wire and hiring private guards and guard
dogs to keep safe.
The government, aware of the emotive impact of crime that
affects all Malaysians irrespective of race or religion announced a
raft of new measures this week aimed at bring down the escalating crime
graph.
But opposition lawmakers say the measures are lukewarm and politically motivated in anticipation of the early general election.
"In 50 years of electoral politics this is the first time the
opposition is putting crime as the top issue during an upcoming
election," said parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang.
"Discrimination, race, poverty and religion are all issues that have
been in society for a long time but uncontrolled crime is now the top
issue," he told IPS.
"Abdullah has failed miserably to curb crime which has almost
doubled during his term as prime minister," Lim said adding that Badawi
also holds the key finance and interior portfolios.
"Heavy responsibilities have overwhelmed him. He should give up the
home ministry and appoint a dedicated crime fighter to curb rising
crime," Lim said.
According to Lim the key reason why crime is rising is because
of police corruption, inefficiency and unaccountability. "All these are
part of the rampant crime problem which has become a top political
issue," Lim said adding police have lost the ground to criminals.
Officials said the government is worried because crime has become an emotive issue and one that affects all races.
In an event widely reported by the country's mainstream
newspapers, Badawi visited police headquarters, held discussions with
police top brass and announced that he has taking personal charge of
combating crime.
He also announced new measures like hiring more policemen,
freeing others from office duties to patrol the streets, buying better
equipment, and closed circuit TV surveillance cameras and rehiring
retired police personnel.
But he has not offered any solution to combat corruption in
the force and the lack of skills to fight crime -- two setbacks experts
say is fueling the escalation in violent crime.
Under Badawi’s premiership the crime index worsened from
156,315 cases in 2003 to 224,298 cases in 2007 -- a rise of 45 percent
over the past four years. It rose 13.4 percent in 2007 alone.
As if to mock Badawi’s measures, a five-year-old girl was
abducted last week by an infamous serial killer and sexual predator.
His fifth victim was abducted in the same depressed Kampung Medan area
of the capital as the fourth one, sparking a massive public outcry.
Despite mobilisation of the national police force and
technical help from the intelligence agencies, the killer is loose
heightening the fear felt in many households that rampant crime has
become unstoppable.
"The strategies announced are too little, too late and lack
seriousness. The political will to bite the bullet is missing," said
human rights lawyer Ramu Kandasamy. "When Mr Abdullah became Prime
Minister in 2003 he pledged to curb crime but instead crime jumped 45
percent during his tenure," Kandasamy told IPS.
"This is a country with a modern economy and first world infrastructure
and first world ambitions. It is sad but we will soon become the crime
capital of Asia,’’ Kandasamy added.
Many experts say a key reason for the crisis is Badawi’s failure to set
up an independent police misconduct commission, and follow a key
recommendation made by a royal commission in 2005 to overhaul the
police force.
In December, Badawi offered a heavily watered-down version of
a independent oversight commission which was heavily criticised because
senior police personnel would be running it.
"The key issue is who polices the police… surely not the
police themselves," said opposition lawmaker Murugesan Kulasegaran. "It
has got to be done by independent, non-police persons of high caliber
and integrity."
"More policemen and more CCTVs are not going to automatically
bring down the crime rates," he said. "These measures are aimed at the
symptoms; it will not cure the infection."
"Police have lost the streets," Kulasegaran said. "They have
to get it back by being better cops -- fast, efficient, skillful and
free of corruption."
