KUALA LUMPUR, May 23- Newly-appointed Inspector-General (IGP) of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has promised to come up with effective strategies to fight crime and reduce the crime index nationwide. He said the strategies would be drawn up in stages to ease anxiety among the people on crime.
“Reducing crime is among the three challenges currently faced by the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM). We are committed in focusing on the matter,” he said. Khalid, 55, said this in his first interview with the media here today since succeeding Tan Sri Ismail Omar,60, as the new IGP Ismail’s contract ended on Friday.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, when tabling the 2012 Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Annual Report in March, said PDRM had succeeded in reducing the crime index by 27 per cent in the last three years.
Najib also outlined the second phase of the GTP to complete the mission of the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) to reduce crime from 2013 to 2015.The NKRA initiative showed a major triumph since 2009 when PDRM’s move to eradicate crime resulted in Malaysia being recognised as the safest country in South East Asia and 19th in the world as reported by the Global Peace Index.
Khalid also promised to utilise all PDRM’s resource to reduce the crime rate including by cooperating with numerous security agencies, namely the Armed Forces, People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) and Civil Defence Department under the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS).
He said police would also forge cooperation with numerous quarters to fight and prevent crime holistically including non-governmental organisations and the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF). Other than crime, Khalid outlined two other challenges of PDRM which must be tackled including a change in police approach in public order by respecting human rights and boosting police integrity.
He said police respected the question of human rights and had taken numerous approaches such as implementing the Peaceful Gathering Act 2012. “But, all quarters must also understand, to ensure public order in the country every human right has a limit and cannot be exceeded,” he said, stressing that all quarters must respect the law to ensure peace was protected.
On the move to boost the integrity of PDRM, he said the role of the Disciplinary Department would be further expanded and closer cooperation would be sought with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission and a government agency, namely, Performance Management and Delivery Unit.
He also said a schedular integrity examination would be held for policemen to ensure they were free from corruption.
– BERNAMA
