Heads to roll in police, 3 departments to shut, says report

Corruption and loyalty to previous government are among the factors for a clean-up of the force.

Mohamad Fuzi Harun has been the inspector-general since September last year. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun is among several senior policemen set to be axed next month, as Putrajaya turns its focus to “cleaning up” the police force, Singapore’s The Straits Times (ST) reports quoting sources.

“Some of them have excessive wealth… It doesn’t make sense how some of them can have so many luxury cars, on top of living in a bungalow,” the paper quoted a source as saying, adding that political loyalty was also a consideration.

It named at least two potential successors to Fuzi: his deputy Noor Rashid Ibrahim and former head of Commercial Crime Investigation Department, Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani.

Fuzi replaced Khalid Abu Bakar as the police chief in September last year. Following the change of government on May 9, Khalid was placed under a travel ban pending investigations linked to the 1MDB scandal, among others.

ST also said three “graft-ridden” departments would be shut down: the Special Task Force for Anti-Vice, Gaming and Gangsterism (Stagg), Special Task Force on Organised Crime (Stafoc) and Special Tactical Intelligence Narcotics Group (STING).

The daily quoted a source as saying that the three units were targeted due to their involvement in “corruption and protecting the criminals they were supposed to rein in”.

“Too many of those who were entrusted to fight the underworld are also the ones who protect them,” it said.

The then-opposition Pakatan Harapan and rights groups had repeatedly called for reforms in the police force, accusing it of corruption, power abuse and political persecution.

The previous government had also failed to form an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) amid rising cases of police abuse and custodial deaths.

The police have resisted the proposal since it was first mooted by a 2005 Royal Commission of Inquiry chaired by former chief justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah. -FMT