NAJIB GIVES IGP MORE MONEY FOR 'POLITICAL SPYING' WHILE SOLVING CRIMES TAKE A BACKSEAT - MP

While the federal government is cutting down the budget for a lot of key areas in the 2016 Budget, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) will receive a budget increase next year.

From the time Prime Minister Najib Razak tabled his first budget for 2010, supply for PDRM has increased almost 80%, a whooping difference of RM3.5 billion in a period of just seven years.

While its development budget fluctuates over the years in the same period, 2016 will see an increase of nearly 55% or over RM201 million from 2015.

The top three items in this category are spendings on PDRM headquarters RM135 million, airplanes RM109 million and information technology system RM84.4 million.

However, despite the huge increase in its budget, the PDRM’s peformance is disappointing.

Year	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
RM bil	4.51	5.79	6.32	6.51	6.90	7.62	7.98
%	n.a.	28.4	9.2	3.0	6.0	10.4	4.7

Table 1: Annual (original) supply allocation to PDRM from 2010 - 2016 and its annual increment in percent (Based on the Federal Estimates of each year)

Year	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
RM mil	712.47	570.80	441.80	285.22	378.87	368.95	569.97
%	n.a.	(19.9)	(22.6)	(35.4)	32.8	(2.6)	54.5

Table 2: Annual (original) development budget for PDRM from 2010-2016 and its annual increment in percent (Source: Federal Estimates of each year)

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
# Case files opened	189,227	211,645	395,888	395,888	147,062	128,544	122,400	122,400
# Case closed	93,431	93431	60,401	60,401	28,162	64,417	59,400	59,400
% closed	49.4	44.2	15.3	15.3	19.2	50.1	48.5	48.5

Table 3: Number of criminal case files opened, closed and percentage of cases closed (Source: Federal Estimates of each year)

Although the number of criminal cases opened for investigation has reduced, the number of cases closed has dropped tremendously. In the period after Najib took power in April 2009 until now, the number of cases successfully closed by PDRM dropped from 93,431 cases a year to a mere 59,400 cases a year, a reduction of almost 40%!

Against this background, except in 2014, from 2009-2015, less than half the case files opened were closed each year. In 2014, only 50.1% case files were successfully closed.

Meanwhile, intelligence report by PDRM increased every year. From 2010 onwards, PDRM produced an average of roughly 1,000 intelligence report PER DAY. These reports will definitely include information gathered from political spying especially on the Oppositions.

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
# of report	357,105	363,823	381,743	381,743	380,800	368,900	374,927	375,500	376,800

Table 4: Number of intelligence report submitted by PDRM (Source: Federal Estimates of each year)

Under Najib, PDRM strong in spying but weak in closing criminal cases

As such, it seems that PDRM under the Najib administration has increased its capacity for intelligence work and political spying but is becoming less capable to solve crimes.

According to a parliamentary answer provided to me by the Home Minister on 19 October 2015, PDRM today has 130,115 personnel. This means, given Malaysia’s population of about 30 million, the police to citizens ratio is about 1:230 which is better than the standard recommended by Interpol at 1:250.

In other words, we have enough police officers to deal with public safety. However, with the strength of PDRM being diverted by the government into political spying, and other activities such as social media monitoring, PDRM risks losing its focus to fight crimes as is happening right now.

Steven Sim Chee Keong is MP for Bukit Mertajam