Media Statement by Parliamentary Opposition Leader and DAP MP for Ipoh Timur Lim Kit Siang when launching the 2-day 12-place “whistle-stop” campaign in Perak to highlight the DAP national general election theme of “Good Cops, Safe Malaysia” at the Bidor market (first of the 12 stops) on Saturday, 12th January 2008 at 8 am:

Call on Abdullah to present a White Paper on the status of implementation of each of the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to create an efficient, accountable, incorruptible, professional world-class police service to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights

The Prime Minister and Internal Security Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should present a White Paper on the status of implementation of each of the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to create an efficient, accountable, incorruptible, professional world-class police service to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights.

It is four years since the establishment of the Royal Police Commission and more than 30 months since the publication of the Commission Report and its 125 recommendations to create a world-class police service in Malaysia.

In the past two years, I had repeated asked in Parliament the status of the implementation of the 125 Commission recommendations and I can say with conviction that none of the two Internal Security Ministers, Datuk Johari Baharum and Datuk Foo Ah Kiow has any real clue as to the answer – as they just read out the reply that will be supplied to them by the police, without any understanding or authority over the subject.

This is one of the greatest flaws of the police system because there is no political authority over the police when this is the most important principle in an elected system of government – where the police is not a law unto itself, but under the political control and authority of the elected government of the day.

This is why after all the fanfare about the establishment of the Royal Police Commission, and the publication of its Report and 125 recommendations to carry out far-reaching police reforms, public confidence in policing and the maintenance of law and order have today reached an all-time low with the crime index crashing through the 200,000 mark for the second year in succession in the nation’s history and Malaysians, visitors, tourists and investors never felt more unsafe in the country.

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* Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader, MP for Ipoh Timur & DAP Central Policy and Strategic Planning Commission Chairman