One of my first reactions when I received news in Tokyo on Monday of the Prime Minister’s announcement of pay rise and doubling of cost of living allowances for the civil service – and in particular the 18% to 42% in the basic salary increase for the police – is whether the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill will at last be presented to Parliament next month for passage to demonstrate government commitment to have a world-class police service, whether in reducing crime, professionalism, accountability or integrity.
I had given my full support both in Parliament and outside for a generous increase in police pay as Malaysians want to have a world-class police service which is professional, accountable, incorruptible and efficient in reducing crime to restore to Malaysians their fundamental citizenship right to be free from crime and the fear of crime in the streets, public places and the privacy of their homes.
The reaction of the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan to the “generous pay increase” has been quite euphoric, as illustrated by the headlines: “IGP: No more bribes, no more excuses” (The Sun), “IGP: No excuse for cops to take bribes now” (The Star) and “Musa: No leeway for corrupt cops” (New Straits Times).
Although the expression of Musa’s euphoric reaction is quite deplorable, as it is self-exculpatory in justifying the erstwhile police notoriety as one of the most corrupt government departments, let’s not quibble over the past but look forward to a clean, new and corruption-free future for the police service from now.
Malaysians have heard of many past announcements of “new dawns” for a professional world-class police service to keep crime low but they have all proved to be mirages. Examples of such past illusions include:
- When Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister on Oct. 31, 2003, he pledged that one of his top priorities would be to reduce crime, whether in the streets, public places or the privacy of homes. Today, Malaysians feel even more unsafe from crime than when Abdullah became Prime Minister.
- Abdullah had raised great hopes about his commitment to create an efficient, incorruptible, human rights-sensitive world-class police service when he set up the Royal Police Commission which came out with 125 recommendations. However the Royal Police Commission recommendations quickly became a “lame-duck” Report when the most important recommendation, the establishment of IPCMC, became a “political football” with the police lobby successfully arm-twisting Umno MPs and got it dispatched to cold-storage at the Attorney-General’s Chambers when the IPCMC should have been set up and operational more than a year ago!
- At the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Royal Malaysian Police in March, IGP Musa announced that the police is being rebranded with a new vision and mission in line with the recommendations of the Royal Police Commission. Coincidentally, Suhakam inquiry findings that excessive police force was used against protesters at the KLCC demo on May 28, 2005 on petrol and power price hikes had just been made public. To date, the thunderous silence on the part of the police as to whether disciplinary action would be taken against the errant police personnel in accordance with the Suhakam inquiry findings remained unbroken.
- Last month, Abdullah promised Malaysians that there would be no compromise in an all-out war against crime — but what Malaysians have got is “no compromise” in rhetoric but not real action against crime.
The message Malaysians want to send to the Police, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet after the RM8 billion pay hikes is: “No more government inefficiencies, no more IPCMC sabotage, no more mirages”.
Although the position of the IGP and the top police leadership have changed from the previous one of open and active opposition to the IPCMC proposal — which was a defiant act of insubordination in its an open revolt against the elected government – to one of accepting whatever policy decision of the political leadership, this is most inadequate and unsatisfactory.
With the 18% to 42% police salary increases, IGP Musa should provide leadership and end his ambivalent and non-commital attitude towards the IPCMC proposal by coming out in strong support for the IPCMC Bill to be presented to Parliament for debate and passage next month to demonstrate police support of the key proposal of the Royal Police Commission to have a world-class police service, whether in performance, professionalism, accountability or integrity.
Continued abdication of responsibility on the part of the IGP from giving open and active support to the IPCMC proposal can only raise questions among Malaysians whether the police force is capable of giving a commensurate reciprocity to the 18% to 42% increases in police salary revision.
When the Cabinet could find time in its last two meetings to put the Manchester United friendly match in July on its agenda, it is totally inexcusable if Cabinet Ministers could not find time to give top priority at its next Cabinet meeting to accord full approval for the establishment of the IPCMC and to present the IPCMC Bill to Parliament next month for debate, enactment and establishment.
In the next three weeks till the resumption of Parliament on June 18, opinion leaders, NGOs and the civil society should make their concerns and demands heard loud and clear for the immediate establishment of the IPCMC.
We heard this before….don’t waste your time!
If the police force is clean, efficient, respect human rights and do not abuse their powers, there seems to be no reasons why they are so afraid of the IPCMC. If there is anything in the constitution of the IPCMC or its powers that the police may have some reservation about, we can always sit down and discuss and fine tune it. Outright rejection of IPCMC is simply not acceptable.
For the police force to be independant means UMNO will lose one of its election machinery to supress the opposition. The pay hikes came with one purpose only and the reason is vote buying of civil servants for UMNO.
If that were true,we will be in Shangri-la.
The extra costs of the civil service is RM8billion per year but that would have been halved if the government had trimmed its numbers as envisaged under the privatisation schemes of the 80s.
It is good that pensioners too have been included but I feel that those pensioners getting more than RM5000 per month should have been excluded from the percentage increases but just given nominal increase like RM50 to RM100.
http://malaysiawatch2.blogspot.com/2007/05/of-course-massive-pay-rise-has-to-do.html
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Only if we were in Shangri-la.
The doubling of civil servants since the mid-80s should be debated in Parliament as it puts a real burden on the rest of the taxpayers.
And we would have needed only RM4b extra expenses each year instead of the projected RM8b.
Pension adjustment is good but those getting RM5000 and more tax free, a token sum of RM50 or RM100 would have been appropriate.
http://malaysiawatch2.blogspot.com/2007/05/of-course-massive-pay-rise-has-to-do.html
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yawn…..
Dear Kit, this is out of topic, but you may want to post this article here as it is quite interesting.
http://malaysia-today.net/blog2006/index.php?itemid=4888
Dear Cunning Linguist,
Here at last the answer to your cocksureness and absolute certainty about Lee Kuan Yew’s facility with the Malay language was due to the FACT that he was an Indonesian, borned in Surabaya.
“From my childhood I had Malay friends. I played with kampong boys, both Malays and Chinese. At the age of 6, I went to Telok Kurau English School. There were many Malay pupils who had crossed over from Telok Kurau Malay School which was in the adjacent compound, sharing the same football field. So I grew up completely at ease with Malays: quite a few of my Malay fellow students went on with me to Raffles Institution”.
If the govt can defy the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). What is IPCMC? Listen to what the Prince K has said.
It is a fact that they do not agree with their own affiliations at times and you see top govt servants resigning.
On one hand we have the Singaporeans in the IDR, on the other hand the Singaporeans are not welcome in Kelantan. Again listen to what Prince K has said.
I doubt the sincerity of the govt towards any membership of whatsoever treaties, associations in this world too.
Who cares…..we’re Bolehlanders. We’ll manage ourselves.
Personally i don’t hold much hope on this. My friend has just had an accident and wanted to launch a police report, and the police dare to ask for a bribe as much as RM400 for it.
Well, there goes transparency and cleanliness…
“No more govt inefficiencies, no more IPCMC sabotage, no more miragesâ€Â
Dream on. We’ll get more of the same rubbish from more civil servants. It was announced today that there are still 166,000 vacancies to be filled in the civil service.
Currently, 5% of the population works for the government, the largest employer. And wasn’t it just some months ago the government said it will absorb up to 60,000 unemployed graduates to get them started?
If a police is making RM10000 monthly thru corruption, how does a meagre increase of RM500 in salary gonna help him in stopping his bad habit? The Rm500 is considered petrol money. Get real! Increase in salary wont deter these scums from stopping their habits. Go tell that to the top fellas.
Agree with you, smeagroo.
We have to GET REAL. RM10,000 against RM500 increment?
OLD HABITS DIE HARD.
Such luxuries enjoyed till now you expect corrupt policemen to turn over a new leaf overnight? We must be kidding ourselves.
What is needed is for the govt to LOOK EAST policy. No need fly to Japan. Just goto HK. Emulate the ICAC.
Put the ACA under Parliament.
Introduce back local council election.
we must be bluffing ourselves that by increasing the pay, there will be less corruption around!! it got nothing to do with pay, if you are honoust people, you make an honoust living based on what you have, you just cannot live beyond your means and justify yourselves to rob!!! these people have been taking bribes amounting to extra few thousands to hundreads over thousands a month as traffice police officers or other officers in the gov, you think they will change over night? please dont follow the IGP’s arguments to justify higher pay, his IQ is not very high.
I think inefficiency in gov is amounting to robbing raykat in another way!! gaji buta!
Is the IGP implying that because there was no pay increase previously, therefore, it is expected that the police were allowed to be corrupt? Is that what he means by proclaming that since there is now a pay increase there is no longer any excuse for corruption?
Again the UMNO government has lied and broken promises to the public. The UMNO government has repeatedly promised the enactment of the IPCMC as proposed by the Police Commission. It has also promised the publish the method of calculation used by the government for the bumiputra share of the listed companies under the NEP. Where are these two promises now? Still in the works??
I hope that the electorate will not forget the UMNO government’s consistent lying (this about the only consistent policy of the UMNO government) as well as the broken promises. These show that, despite all their spin, they are no men without any houour, if they know the meaning of the word.
To the authorities and BN Government, this is freedom of speech. Talk only , say only , no need to be responsible for anything.
What I like most now is their own freedom of speech are starting to ‘chew’ themselves up.
I respect the IGP for his willingness to let you know how he thinks about solving the corruption problem, even though the solution is not a solution actually, unlike other politician that dont tell u how they get the results as they could not understand the calculations to explain how the results are obtained and they are still working on it!!! you may be laughing but it is true, wait till you work under bosses whose IQ are very very low. Do you know why Ching dynasty collapse? it was bcos the country was run by people without the right stuff, they were there bcos of their own stock and not based on talents. It wont take long for Malaysia to fall into the same situation. Read my lips!
Not so fast, IGP!
“The reaction of the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan to the “generous pay increase†has been quite euphoric, as illustrated by the headlines: “IGP: No more bribes, no more excuses†(The Sun), “IGP: No excuse for cops to take bribes now†(The Star) and “Musa: No leeway for corrupt cops†(New Straits Times)”.
I just got a call from a friend driving to Penang. Their car was stopped by the trafiic policeman who ‘trumped up’ a speeding charge & asked for a bribe! My friend refused & the policeman said he will send the summons by mail! Such outrageous ‘daylight robbery’. And so soon after the announcement of the salary increase!
Hey, Pak Lah – the salary increase is not big enough to offset the ‘pocket money’ from the bribes. Another failed BN scheme.
The rot is so deep and is such a festering sore, giving more handouts is not the solution!
Any more bright and rotten ideas, BN?
If not, move over; vote PKR/DAP & give them a chance to get to the root of the problem & solve them.
IGP IGP…. mengaku juga dia ada korupsi berlualuasa di dalam organisi terancang
Listening to political activists and politicians alike talk about “reforms” and the “reformist movement” and how “reformed oriented” Malaysians today are, make me want to puke!
It is 35 % for the lowest category group, 25 % for the support group, 15 % for the managerial group and 7.5 % for all the big bosses ( but not that big ). Talk about failing in mathematics. It is ridiculous that the 25 % salary is higher than the 15 %. The 25 % should be the managers and the 15 % should be the subordinates. Efficiency ? You should go down to the grass root level and see what indiscipline there is and the boss just could not be bothered about it. Don’t blame them. Blame the ones who think they are in control and yet they are not. However on the positive side, the higher salary does help in the daily living expenses.
everyone knows election is coming, and this may be a great way to start for the ruling party.
However, they didnt think of the consequences. If the global economic turns south or the stockmarket crashes suddenly. This irreversible commitment can severely cost the government’s coffer.
The government should reduce our cost of living, create more jobs by having more foreign investors, reduce the government’s workforce. Having more commercial working citizen will increase the country’s wealth., remove monopoly of certain sector will drive competitions and reduce the cost of living, implement AFTA to the fullest, remove import/export duties and taxes, implement GST, stop trying to revive ailing company with tax payers money.
We the private sector medium income group has so little in hand for a comfortable life, cannot afford to frequently travel far without encumbrance of toll gate and increasing fuel prices, and not having affordable quality manufacturer cars..now we must bear the cost of paying higher salary to government staffs. We cant even afford a maid to aid our duty as a parents/employee.. How could we be able to pay more to the government servants?
The private sectors most of us are borrowing a luxurious life from the bank. THE BANKS owns us all. Yes, you can pay a small sum every month to drive a luxurious car..but you need to sacrifise something…
DAP you need to do something progressive, I dont see an alternative government available in our future…only a opposition party. You need to stop being an opposition party BUT be a alternative government..
OH WHAT A SHAME!
Now that with the substantially increase in salaries the IGP has asked his men not to BE CORRUPTED!!! Thus he implied that before this, his men are all the while are corrupted!! If I am the IGP I would not have incriminated my men. It is a real shame to the Police Force.