Armed forces and police veterans group Patriot has labelled the deployment of military personnel this Sunday to help police enforce the movement control order as “hasty”.
“Patriot is of the opinion that the decision is hasty and premature at this moment.
“From the flurry of statements over the last few days, and even contradicting an earlier statement made by the chief of defence force (CDF), it appears that the defence minister is only too keen to deploy the military.
“[...] On the government’s restrictive movement order, we believe the police, being the authority to affect the order, have sufficient resources to control and manage the order effectively,” Patriot president Mohamed Arshad Raji said in a statement today.
“The more than 130,000 personnel, and particularly from the Pasukan Gerakan Am (General Operational Force) that are currently positioned in different parts of the country, can be deployed for such a task. Patriot is confident that the police will professionally execute the task given.”
According to Arshad (photo), police must be given the chance to execute their task in enforcing the two-week order which came into effect March 18 and is set to end on March 31.
“The defence minister must have full trust and confidence in the ability of our police force who are experienced enough in dealing with internal security issues.
Military deployment to maintain order has to be a last resort, he added to also prevent tarnishing the country’s image internationally, as it would appear as though Malaysia is in a war zone.
This despite him acknowledging the country had entered an emergency panic situation over the Covid-19 outbreak.
New Defence Minister Ismail Sabri had today announced that the armed forces will be deployed from Sunday to help police.
He said under the law, the health minister had the prerogative to appoint any government agency to help in monitoring the order.
“I believed the defence ministry received a similar letter (of authority from the health minister). So there's no need to question the instructions from the government," said Ismail earlier today.
This was confirmed by Chief of Defence Force General Affendi Buang who said this was after discussions with the Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador on how the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) could help police with the movement control order.
He had said: “The three MAF wings (army, navy and air force) will be streamlined under a working committee in accordance with suitability for deployment around the country.”
This was despite yesterday assuring the public that deployment of armoured vehicles on certain streets, as viralled on social media, was only for training purposes.
The country has to date recorded a total of 1,030 coronavirus cases, including two fatalities, after 130 cases were recorded today. - Mkini
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