Kit Siang accuses IGP, Zahid of ‘playing politics’, tells them to curb crime

GEORGE TOWN, May 19 ― The country’s new police chief and home minister should stop “playing politics” and start keeping Malaysians, tourists and investors safe from crime and harm, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang said today.

The DAP advisor’s criticism today follows both Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar (picture) and Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s statements about Pakatan Rakyat (PR) rallies and Malaysians unhappy with the electoral results.

“Both should realise that they are being paid by the taxpayers to carry out their primary duty to reduce crime, to protect the safety of Malaysians, tourists and investors and to abolish the fear of crime which is haunting Malaysians in many criminal black spots in the country, instead of abdicating from their duties by playing politics with their positions,” the Gelang Patah MP said in a statement.

"But what is intolerable and unacceptable is the double-standards and the distorted sense of police priorities involved," he said.

Giving an example of their reversed sense of priorities, Lim cited a front-page report in today's Mingguan Malaysia broadsheet in which the police chief had said he was investigating a purported opposition plot to overthrow the federal government through street demonstrations.

The DAP veteran said he welcomed the investigation but questioned the basis for it, pointing out it the person who had made the accusations had not even lodged a police report prompting the IGP to instruct his own officers to file one to enable the police to take action.

He noted that police reports had been lodged against former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mohd Noor Abdullah over the latter's provocative remarks at a public forum in which the latter had allegedly blamed the Chinese as ingrates for betraying the friendship of Malays and urging the Malays to defend their rights.

"When will Malaysia have an IGP who dare to declare and act publicly that his first duty is to defend Malaysians from crime and the fear of crime, and not to play political games to please the political masters of the day?" he asked.

He also slammed Ahmad Zahid for his "outrageous" call telling Malaysians unhappy with the country's electoral system to migrate elsewhere, which Lim said was showed ignorance of the meaning of patriotism and democracy.

Lim said the duo should set a challenge to curb crime within the next 12 months or step down from office, and suggested they start with Johor Baru, which he claimed to be the "capital of crime in the country".

Putrajaya has sought to address concerns over the crime rate and introduced crime-reduction as a National Key Result Area (NKRA), which the police and the government's efficiency unit Pemandu said has been successful in reducing crime.

But the ubiquity of crime reports, both in the news and shared in social media, have led to doubts over the veracity of the authorities' professed drop in crime.

Crime watchdog group MyWatch also accused the police in February of massaging the crime statistics, claiming cases of snatch theft and robbery without firearms as well as burglaries and house break-ins, were higher than the published crime index from January to October 2011.

The police have denied manipulating national crime figures.