Home minister sticks up for IGP

Zahid Hamidi tells the public to respect the IGP as he is an institution and not merely a man in uniform.

KUALA LUMPUR: Home Minister Zahid Hamidi has cautioned the public against threatening the Inspector-General of Police, saying he was not merely one man in a uniform but represented an institution guarding the security of the nation.

“The question of threatening any public officer should be avoided, because the person appointed is translating their responsibilities,” he was quoted by the Malaysian Insider as saying.

He was referring to an IS-styled group calling themselves Anti-Democracy Sons of Malaysia (AMAD) who uploaded a video onto YouTube Tuesday threatening to kill IGP Khalid Abu Bakar by blowing up his car.

Zahid said the death threat was not only about Khalid per se, but the institution that he represented.

Zahid said, “In this case, the IGP is not a person, he is an institution. Please respect the institution. His main responsibility is to make sure that the element of security is translated in general.

“His position has to be respected. Any statement issued by him is not his personal statement, it is a statement issued by an institution. This must be respected,” he emphasised.

Reacting to the death threat in the video, Bukit Aman’s Special Branch principal assistant director (counter-terrorism division) Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, told The Rakyat Post, “We, the authorities, take this matter seriously and those responsible for the release of the two videos will have serious actions taken against them.”

An earlier video, also uploaded onto YouTube showed three similarly clad men in full face masks threatening to blast firecrackers in front of the nation’s courthouses.

In a statement yesterday, Khalid said he was taking the death threat issued against him in stride as it was common for men in uniform like him to be threatened in the line of duty.

“Such threats do not scare me as the police chief to carry out the tasks entrusted to me. Such threats are common in the life of a police officer in performing his duties,” The Malaysian Insider reported him as saying.