By Lim Guan Eng, Secretary General of the DAP

The Inspector-General of Police(IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar should get down from his arrogant pedestal and remember that he is not sacrosanct or a “sacred cow” who can not be criticized, but a mere public servant paid by the people to perform his statutory duty to fight crime. If Khalid puts as much effort in fighting crime and criminals as fighting to defend himself and against those expressing their opinions, then Malaysia would be a much safer place.

Khalid should not be misusing the country’s criminal or punitive laws against criticism against himself but instead rely on defamation laws to clear his name. Using criminal laws against his detractors when Khalid has full resources at his disposal as the IGP, would place his critics in an unfair and unequal position. Will Khalid fight fair by resorting to civil courts of defamation against those who he alleged had defamed him?

The Penang state government wishes to verify claims by Penang police chief Senior Deputy Comm Wira Abdul Rahim Hanafi that eleven of the 156 Penang Voluntary Patrol or Pasukan Peronda Sukarela (PPS) unit members detained, have criminal records involving theft, robbery, drugs, triad-related offences and even homicide. Similarly, those whose urine tests were tested positive could be due to medication taken for illnesses.

The Penang state government would also seek to verify whether there had been any police reports or allegations against these 11 whilst they were performing their voluntary role in the PPS. Otherwise it would be unfair to tar the entire PPS comprising of 9,000 people with purported information of the background of a few members. Should the 120,000 police personnel also be similarly treated just because of the actions of the few policemen who were involved in cold-blooded murder by C4 explosives, caused custodial deaths, commited crimes like robbery or abused their powers by being involved in corruption?

The Penang state government had stressed that no PPS member would be protected if they commit any offences or break the law but will be subjected to the full force of punishment. The people of Penang can attest to the good work the PPS had done, in particular helping the public and police to carry out voluntary community policing.

Unfortunately the BN controlled media, including some in the Chinese press, have adopted the BN position of being anti-PPS. The Penang state government wishes to reiterate that the PPS has never received any written complaints by the police against the PPS as a whole. If there were any such complaints, these would have been communicated by the police to Penang State EXCO member Phee Boon Poh or myself.

It is regrettable that the same BN controlled media has twisted the PPS into a political issue to fix up the Penang PR state government. The Penang state government had established PPS to provide emergency relief in accidents, emergency and rescue services and also in response to the call by police to strengthen community policing to fight crime. The state government has inherent powers to set up such a body in the same manner that Jawatankuasa Kemajuan dan Keselamaan Kampung(JKKK) or JKKK(P) was established by the Federal government.

Followng the arrests of the 156 and whilst awaiting the pronouncement in courts of their arrests, the Penang state government had announced that all PPS members would be “rested” from carrying their voluntary work and not be wearing their uniform vests. This shows that the Penang state government respects the rule of law and the decisions by the courts.

In the meantime we hope that the police would address the public concerns of the absence of community policing, accidents and emergency rescue services without the voluntary work of the 9,002 PPS participants. The Penang state government remains committed to a safer Penang and to maintain Penang’s status as the safest state in Malaysia.