Past 30 days more than 18
shootings and 8 murders taken place in Malaysia. From the mainstream media and
internet portals this becomes the hottest topic which had been discussed by
various parties. The most obvious scapegoat on this matter is the Royal Police of
Malaysia.
Our new Inspector General of
Police comes under scrutiny from numerous sectors of people within our society.
We cannot blame him solely of what is happening in our country now. This
particular problem already existed many decades ago. The various parties who
are entrusted to uphold the safety of our nation and to maintain peace in our
country eventually have not done enough until the situation is deteriorated to
such nature now.
The most obvious conflict is between
national security and human rights. Past years, many security laws like
Internal Security Act and Emergency Ordinance were repealed to satisfy and accommodate
for the voices of human rights. Unfortunately these laws not sufficiently replaced
with new security laws. Therefore the powers of the enforcement and security
forces to maintain law and order in Malaysia are limited.
The existence and legitimacy of a
country very much depended on the security and preservation of its
constitutional requirements. We cannot allowed our beloved country destroyed
just because to uphold or fulfill the requirement of certain people in name of
human rights. When there is a conflict between human rights and national
security, I believe national security should be given the highest consideration
because without the existence of a country there will be no humans to enjoy
their rights. So, national interest and security are paramount.
What is most important aspect
that we need to consider now is how to overcome this current debacle. There are
no point blame people without giving any constructive opinions to resolve this problem.
Prevention of a crime is not a sole responsibility of the enforcement and
security forces.
Firstly, we need to enact new
security laws without infringing our constitutional rights. The model of these
laws can be taken from Australia [Crime Prevention Powers Act 1998] and United
Kingdom [Prevention of Crime Act 1953 - An Act to prohibit the carrying of offensive weapons in public places without lawful authority or reasonable excuse; Crime and Security Act 2010 - An Act to make provision about police powers of stop and search; about the taking, retention, destruction and use of evidential material; for the protection of victims of domestic violence; about injunctions in respect of gang-related violence; about anti-social behaviour orders; about the private security industry; about possession and use of electronic communications devices in prison; about air weapons; for the compensation of victims of overseas terrorism; about licensing the sale and supply of alcohol; about searches in relation to persons subject to control orders; and for connected purposes.] i.e. the crime prevention legislations.
Even though we have the Prevention of Crime Act 1959, but this law need to scrutiny
further for suitability of the current needs.
Secondly, in UK there is an
agency which is known as Serious Organised Crime Agency [SOCA]. The function of
this agency is to tackle serious organised crime that affects the UK and
its citizens. This includes class A drugs, people smuggling and human
trafficking, major gun crime, fraud, computer crime and money laundering. This is
a centralized agency. The agency officers can have the collective powers of
police, customs and immigration officers. It’s also having a substantial range
of tools and legislation to target criminals with the ability to recover assets
through to Serious Crime Prevention Orders. They use traditional methods like
investigating and arresting criminals. In meanwhile they also incorporated new innovative
methods like first class intelligence, monitoring
serious career criminals, hitting them where it hurts, working in partnership, worldwide
operations and making it harder to commit crime.
We can adopt this model with our own requirements and allow the relevant
security and enforcement agencies to work together to prevent the serious crimes
happen in Malaysia in future.
Lastly and most importantly, all
sectors of people have to work together and they must understand and support
the relevant agencies on the crime prevention in Malaysia. The criminals always
find cutting-edge ways with security and enforcement agencies to commit a
crime. A crime is unsubtle. Prevention is always better than the cure.
Let’s work together and help the
relevant agencies to prevent crimes in Malaysia rather than do nothing and
blame others all time.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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