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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Petaling Jaya, Sunday) :  The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should get the Cabinet to reconsider its rejection last Wednesday of any pay rise for the police and create a special scheme to pay police higher than other civil servants in view of the critical tasks they perform to arrest the deteriorating crime situation which will seriously undermine the nation’s international competitiveness and economic well-being.

This will be one way to resolve the problem of having to immediately conduct a salary review involving 1.1 million civil servants if there is a revision of the pay for the 85,000-strong police force.

I fully agree with the former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar that if there are  financial constraints for an immediate  across-the-board increase for  the entire police force, there can be a differentiation between police officers who do real policing work and are in the front-line to fight and reduce crime and those who don’t.  Police officers who are not doing real policing work will be paid less than those who are in the frontline of policing and risking their lives.

The time is long overdue for  the authorities, both the police and political leadership in government, to  give the topmost priority to declare war on crime to restore to Malaysians their fundamental right to be  free from crime and the fear of crime.

In  the past fortnight, the new Inspector-General Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan has shown a more pro-active leadership to shake up the police force as conducting spot-checks of the Dang Wangi and Shah Alam police headquarters, which is most commendable.

This is good P.R. but it has not been able to convince Malaysians – particularly with the crime incidents of the past two weeks -  that the police has been able to turn the tide in the fight against crime to make the country safe for work, play and visit.

This is because such high-octane P.R. spot visits to police districts by the new Inspector-General of Police cannot be  a substitute for a system of world-class police service ethos,  professionalism and competence, supervised  by an independent external oversight mechanism like the proposed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).  This is to give notice that neither Abdullah nor Musa can run away from the issue of the establishment of IPCMC when Parliament resumes its budget debate next month.

(01/10/2006)