Musa Hassan's motive

The policy speech by the Umno president at the annual general assembly is often a kind of political show the entire nation is closely watching. Unfortunately, this year's show has been hijacked by former IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan.

Even as Najib hits out hard at Pakatan and tabulates the accomplishments of the BN government, Musa Hassan's shocking revelation has nevertheless exposed the administrative weaknesses of our government agencies.

Musa Hassan is no ordinary retired civil servant, and as such the government should seriously consider setting up an independent panel to probe his accusations which must not be downplayed as immaterial or be trifled with.

If Musa Hassan's accusation that politicians have intervened in police affairs is true, the operation of the police force will be adversely affected and its integrity eroded.

Phone calls from above

The police force is tasked with the responsibility of keeping the social order intact and it therefore must exercise its professionalism to achieve this in the absence of political intervention.

Musa said when the police were about to arrest some heavyweight suspects, they would often receive calls from those in power.

If the country's laws cannot be justly upheld, how do we expect the public to have faith in our law enforcement?

The Malaysian police force should be an unbiased enforcement institution. If it fails to operate independently, it would be very difficult for it to carry out its duties during the upcoming general election.

Links with illegal gangs

Musa Hassan also exposed links between senior police officers and illegal gangs, an accusation that would jeopardise the integrity of the police force.

When police discipline is involved, things will suddenly become very sensitive.

Because of Musa Hassan's previous objection to the setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), the issue of police misconduct remains unresolved to this day.

The MACC investigations and subsequent charges against Musa Hassan and former CID chief Ramli Yusof are nothing we can be proud of. The police force must strive to improve its image instead of persistently rejecting supervision.

If a split takes place at the top ranks of the police force, how do we expect them to set a good example for their subordinates?

Thirdly, Musa Hassan also queried the reliability of the police's crime data, and this has begun to arouse public suspicion.

Well familiar with the modus operandi of the police force, Musa Hassan highlighted the fact that some police officers have resorted to converting unresolved cases to "no further action" cases in a bid to achieve the government's crime reduction targets.

Without true and genuine figures, the minister will be kept in the dark and thus wrongly assess the actual crime situation in the country.

This August, the Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) received a letter said to be from an anonymous police officer making the same accusations. As such, it is imperative that the police's crime figures be appraised by an independent third party institution with the hope the root cause of the problem could be identified.

High-level defections

Fourthly, why do some senior civil servants continue to slam the government after their retirement?

Some notable retired senior officers have joined PAS, including former Bukit Aman CID chief Fauzi Shaari, former chief secretary for the ministry of land and cooperative development Nik Zain Nik Yusof, former solicitor-general Mohd Yusof Zainal Abiden, and former TUDM officer Mohd Nazari Mokhtar.

The BN government has been taking very good care of our civil servants; the defection by any of them could deal a serious blow on Umno.

-Sin Chew Daily