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Police should not be allowed to “hijack” the  terms of reference of the Police Royal Commission into focusing primarily on  acute manpower shortages and distracting it from  priority agendas  to win public confidence to deliver  a world-class police service to reduce the double rise in crime rate and fear of crime and to eradicate police corruption and misconduct Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Petaling Jaya,  Saturday): The Police should not be allowed to “hijack” the terms of reference of the  Police Royal Commission into focusing  primarily on acute manpower shortages and distracting  it from priority agendas  to win public confidence to deliver a world-class police service to reduce the double rise in crime rate and the  fear of crime and to  eradicate police corruption and misconduct.  This appears to be the purpose of the CID Director Datuk Salleh Mat Som who wanted the Police Royal Commission of Inquiry to address the acute shortage of manpower and logistics before the police could be more effective.  Comm Salleh said yesterday that  he had made a request to the Public Services Department (PSD)  for an additional 6,000 people to complement the CID’s present workforce of 5,000.  According to their guidelines, an investigating officer (IO) should handle 11 cases a month while a commercial crimes officer, five cases.  Unfortunately, an IO in the city is burdened with about 11 cases a day.  The statistics given by the CID Director is quite different from what he gave six months ago in the public furore about the double rise in crime rate and the fear of crime in the wake of the gruesome abduction-rape-murder of Canny Ong, as Comm Salleh had said that “his crime-fighters numbered less than 6,000 to handle over 240,000 crimes reported annually” with less than half of them as investigating officers.  He said that he had applied to the PSD to approve the recruitment of an additional 7,000 men to cope with the ever-increasing work-load.  (Star 3.7.03)  The discrepancy of Comm Salleh’s own statistics in a matter of six months (from 6,000 personnel and asking for an additional 7,000 men in July to 5,000 men and asking for an additional 6,000 people yesterday) is a mark of lack of the professionalism in the top police leadership, and a strong reason why there is a need for a Police Royal Commission for a modern, professional, competent and responsive police force which could deliver quality world-class police service to reduce crime, the fear of crime and reassure the people about the safety of the streets, public spaces and the homes; as well as to end  police abuses and misconduct, such as corruption, abuses of power, police brutality and deaths in police custody  by investigating all such cases in the past 10 years. In fact, Comm Salleh’s claim of 240,000 reported crimes annually is completely way off from the  figures given by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Monday when announcing the Police Royal Commission at the opening of the three-day conference of police commissioners/police chiefs, General Operations Office Force brigade commanders/commandants.  Abdullah had quoted 149,042 reported crimes for 2002 as compared to 156,469 cases in 2001 and 167,173 cases in 2000 – which are different from Interpol statistics which reported 178,972 reported crimes in Malaysia in 2002 and 186,467 cases in 2000. ((http://www.interpol.int/Public/Publications/sci/default.asp)  As the Interpol figures are derived from the respective national police authorities concerned, can the Malaysian Police explain the reasons for the three sets of reported crime statistics for Malaysia – from Comm Salleh’s 240,000 cases, Interpol’s 178,972 cases to Abdullah’s 149,042 cases?  In any event, there is no need to set up a Royal Commission just to deal with the manpower and logistics shortages in the police, as this is a matter which should be able to be dealt with by the PSD, or by the Home Minister himself.  If the Royal Commission is to inquire into police manpower shortages, a more appropriate focus will be to ascertain to what extent police chiefs had been able to fulfill the directive of the former Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai, to make use of personnel from all departments within the force to overcome the shortage of manpower in combating crime. (Star 3.7.03).  This is a grave  matter as the 82,000 police personnel seems to have no difficulty in responding to the directive of the new Inspector-General of Police to issue traffic summons, while they have little to show in uniting to combat the double rise in the crime rate and the fear of crime, resulting in  the fear of crime becoming  one of the biggest concerns of Malaysians in the new millennium.  Although Malaysians welcome Abdullah’s announcement of a Police Royal Commission, there is growing concern about its terms of reference, scope, powers and membership so as to ensure that it would not end up sweeping controversial issues about police modernization, effectiveness and efficiency like corruption and police misconduct under the carpet.  DAP asks the Cabinet on Wednesday to seriously consider establishing two royal commissions to review the police force in totality because of the enormity and complexity ot the tasks involved – one to make recommendations for a modern, professional, competent and responsive police force which could deliver quality world-class police service to reduce crime, the fear of crime and reassure the people about the safety of the streets, public spaces and the homes; and a second to focus on police abuses and misconduct, such as corruption, abuses of power, police brutality and deaths in police custody in the past 10 years. (3/1/2004) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman