The Parliamentary Roundtable on 28th July last year on “A new IGP for a Safe Malaysia” which was endorsed by responsible and conscientious MPs and key pillars of civil society have been vindicated – that instead of becoming safer, the people of Shah Alam had to exclaim in pain, sorrow and anger “This is not Manchester or Los Angeles, this is bloody Malaysia” following the heinous police killing of 14-year-old Form III student Aminulrasyid Hamzah.
Last July, the two main reasons I had given why Tan Sri Musa Hassan should go without renewal of his tenure and a new IGP appointed have come back to haunt the country and people because of their prescience and validity, viz:
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Failure of Musa in Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as IGP in the past three years, in all the three core police functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and protect human rights. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that under Musa, Malaysians are even more unsafe from street crimes now than when he became IGP in September 5, 2006.
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The re-appointment of Musa for another term of IGP cast an adverse aspersion on all the senior police officers, as if there is not a single one out of the eight top police officers occupying key police positions below the post of IGP who are qualified or competent enough to become the new IGP to provide a new police leadership and culture to roll back the tide of crime in the past five years.
I had urged the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to emulate his father, the second Prime Minister Tun Razak to appoint a new Inspector-General of Police still with four or five years of service brimming with ideas to plan out and implement police reforms instead of the current practice of appointing senior police officers left with one or two years’ service more interested about post-retirement arrangements but my advice fell on deaf ears.
The terrible faux pas by Musa yesterday, threatening that he would call the police off the streets and stop enforcing the law, has proven the colossal mistake in extending his appointment as IGP.
Musa deserves a place in the Guinness Book of Records as where else can we find a national police chief threatening to call off his men off the streets when this is the most fundamental duty of any police force in the world?
In fact, anyone who is prepared to consider even for a moment taking police off the streets is not fit the wear the badge of a police officer let alone be the No. 1 Policeman of the land.
Just for such an outrageous statement, which reflects a shocking state of mind, Musa should be sacked as IGP if not suspended immediately.
In an extraordinary attempt to deflect the national firestorm of protest and outrage at his threat that the police would down tools, Musa tried to blame the media, particularly the alternative media, for twisting what he had said earlier that day.
This was why Bernama came out with an online statement at 0013 hours in the early hours of this morning, but which compounded the offence when he repeated the threat that he would get the police to down tools.
This is what Musa said as reported by Bernama early this morning:
“Let the politicians say what they want but I want to know whether you want us to enforce the law or not?
“If not, I will ask my men not to stop dangerous drivers or act against illegal racers,” he reiterated a statement made this morning.
What a stupid question the IGP had asked. Of course, Malaysians want the police to uphold and enforce the law but this is no licence for trigger-happy shooting and killing of Aminulrasyid, 14-year-old student in Shah Alam in the early hours of Monday morning this week.
While on this, can the IGP explain why the police leadership had applied double standards in enforcing the law – one law for the rich, wealthy and powerful while another law for the poor and ordinary rakyat?
The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammudin Hassim must resolve the national crisis of confidence in the police compounded by Musa’s threat of the possibility of the police downing tools regardless of the people’s safety and national security.
The IGP is paid by the people and the country cannot allow anyone, even the IGP, to hold the nation to ransom.
This is a test whether Hishammuddin can be a strong Home Minister vis-à-vis a recalcitrant IGP.
If Hashim is too weak a Home Minister, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak must step in as there can be no place in the Najib administration for an IGP who publicly slaps the Prime Minister in the face by rubbishing the Najib slogan of “People First, Performance Now”.
As a first step to restore public confidence from the IGP faux pas, the Cabinet should hold an emergency meeting to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by the longest-serving IGP, Tun Haniff Omar to investigate into the death of 14-year-old student Aminulrasyid and all cases of police shooting deaths since 2005.
The Haniff Omar Royal Commission of Inquiry should inquire into all cases of tragic police shootings, like the case of single-mother Norizan Salleh, 29, who was shot five times after a car chase in Kuala Lumpur in February.
It has been reported that there was an annual average of some 40 people fatally shot by the police in Malaysia when in England and Wales, there were only five deaths by police shootings per year, on average, in the last decade.
The Haniff Omar Royal Commission of Inquiry should come out with recommendations to end such high rate of fatal police shootings so that no Malaysian would have further cause to exclaim with pain, sorrow and despair: “This is not Manchester or Los Angeles, this is bloody Malaysia!”
The car driven by the 14 year old knocked into another vehicle and he did not stop.
What if he had knocked into an innocent pedestrian who would not be shielded by the protective body of a car? A life would be gone and the boy would at most be sent to a reform school for a couple of years. Is that justice for the dead pedestrian?
He was shot after ignoring police calls for him to stop, and in the 2 a.m. darkness they thought they were dealing with a homicidal criminal. The PM himself speeding away at 2 a.m. and ignoring police calls to stop would also be shot, so why not the boy?
Three jibs for Jib.
Jib Jib.
Boleh.
Jib Jib.
Boleh.
Jib Jib.
Boleh.
YB
Not Hanif Omar lah, please, for God’s sake!! Perkosong and KKK Ali Baba will have a field day about his Chairmanship of gambling kings, Genting!!
Do you really think asking an ex-IGP, a Mahathirite like Hanif Omar to sit in judgement of the current IGP will produce results acceptable to the people?
Or will it be a whitewash and the usual “no one is to be faulted but we recommend….blah..blah…blah.. higher pay..overseas training in London, New York and Paris… blah..blah..blah?
Let’s for once get someone who will do the job withour fear or favour like retire judge NC Chan. What, RCI’s must be always be chaired by a Bumi? Puhlease!!
dpp
we are all of 1 race
Please don’t waste the tax payer’s money any more by another idle RCI report.. The IGP must take responsibility for his officer’s killing young suspect Aminulrasyid Hamzah. He should admit that he has failed his job as the IGP.He should resign immediately.If he remained silent or denied wrong doing,then the MOHA should fire him. If the minister keeps an eye shut,then the PM must fire him.If again the PM keeps mum,then the rakyat must fire him and all his cronies in the 13th GE. Frankly,the job is done,if people who hold top post and the voters act responsibly when the need is needed.
Its quite clear that Najib & Hishamuddin want to get rid of Musa for a few months now (remember the whole ‘resignation’ thing?). But Najib was hesistant because Musa knows a lot of his dirt.
A RCI on this is not hard for Najib to agree to but again it depend how they play out the whole thing. Musa don’t want it sweep this under the carpet because if the officers were found guilty, then his KPI go down the toilet and he has to go. For some reason Musa want to hang on to his job for dear life.
Sdr Lim, you are wasting your breath talking to this fellow, you will sweat in the pool. Told you about competency before. Mediocrity begets mediocrity.
Everybody is asking him to stop being an IGP but he never listen then he should be shot as well.
This is called the “contagion effect”.
This happens when say a Minister is not sacked or asked to resign when a mistake has been made that destroys the government’s credibility.
Now we can see that many vital posts have been contaminated and only the voters can rectify the problem – we do that by CHANGING the government.
Utter rubbish this IGP instead of apologising and expressing regret, said infront of tv camera that the 14-year old teenager could be using the car as a ‘weapon’ against the Police! WHAT??? ..Aminulrasyid Amzah could not have the driving skills of Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, to threaten the lives of the police, could he?
Musa Hassan is behaving more like a No.1 thug than chief of law enforcement. He should surrender his badge and resign.
All Malaysians are so sickened by this crappy IGP that if he were to pass me on the street, I would turn to walk the other side of the road lest i breathe his air and soil my lungs and cause me pneumonia.
Who the hell does this igp think he is? He is but a two-bit civil servant and has no right to speak like he owns the police force or is empowered to lord it over all malaysians.
God have mercy on his soul.
He speaks like a typical UMNO politician..like a Home Minister and not like an IGP that have Malaysians at heart.
He thinks Najib pay his salary…and not tax payers.
In spite of being very well educated…it is written all over his face…he is racist and behaving like a gangster chief…employed by Najib and to solely protect UMNO.
Yes…Police Dept is to protect the government of the day…but not to be used by the government of the day…like a puppet on a string.
Any decent IGP should gave resigned and refused to take orders from Najib..that are not beneficial to Malaysians.
But this IGP is so faithful to UMNO…to Najib…is so clear and is there with no dignity nor principles in life.
Since UMNO BARU is corrupted to the core…he must be filthy rich too…in the so call legal ways.
Usually, if the police shoot someone travelling in a car, a pistol or grenade launcher is subsequently found in the car. This time, it is only a “parang”, probably because the unfortunate person was just 15 years old.