cheahsoonhai

Gerakan urges civil society organizations to co-operate with police

Cheah Soon Hai: Attorney General Chambers should give their best to fight against crime

 
 

Press statement by

Gerakan Central Bureau on Environment, Safety and Quality of Life Chairman

Dr Cheah Soon Hai

 
 

14 August 2013

 
 

Regarding the recent spate of gun violence and other crimes, Gerakan Central Bureau on Environment, Safety and Quality of Life Chairman, Dr Cheah Soon Hai has voiced his concern and hopes that the police can be more aggressive and effective in combating crime and at the same time cooperate with civil society organizations like RELA and Rukun Tetangga to effectively solve the crime problem.

Dr Cheah said "During the Hari Raya period, I met with some police personnel and they pointed out that the process of charging a criminal was also difficult. After investigations are completed the case is then referred to the Attorney General's Chambers but the AGC will only proceed with cases that have concrete evidences of 75% and above due to the fear of the suspect being found not guilty. This is causing the people to distrust the police as many cases does not lead to the suspect being prosecuted."

He said that this situation happened due to the introduction of the KPI by the government although there is no deny that the KPI is well intended system to gauge the performance of civil servants. However, if the AGC decided to prosecute a case but were unsuccessful as the defendant was found to be not guilty, their KPI of the AGC will be adversely affected. Hence, they only proceed with cases that they believe to have a high chance of winning. Dr Cheah called on the government to re-look at the KPI system for the AGC and ensure that it does not hinder the fight against crime.  At the same time, he also hoped that the recent spate of crime rate will not be used as an excuse to revive the EO law. Instead the government should increase more manpower to fight crime.

Preventive laws do not solve the problems, only smart and effective policing and strict adherence to the rule of law will ensure that crimes decrease. Criminals do not fear the justice system let alone respect it because it is ineffective. Stopgap measures like the EO actually lowers the efficiency of the criminal justice system as the police do not need to investigate a crime and the AGC need not charge the suspects as they can be detained extrajudicially and I find this regressive."

Dr Cheah pointed out that according to the Home Minister calculation on ratio of police to population is 1:700 which is believed to be inaccurate. Currently, police personal numbered at 112,583 while the Malaysian population is 28 million. That means the ratio should be at 1: 249 which complies to the international standard of 1: 250. Therefore, the authorities cannot say that the lack of manpower is the reason for the increase in crime rate.

He also hoped that the online reporting system can be implemented as soon as possible to make it convenient for people to report crime to the police. He believed that by using the crime solving rate as the base for promotion, it can boost the morale of the personal to fight crime more effectively.