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Friday, July 19, 2013

‘Police are powerless’ claim is nonsense

Civil society activists say the Home Minister is wrong in saying that the police have become powerless following the abolition of the EO.
PETALING JAYA: Legal and anti-crime NGOs have dismissed a claim made by former IGPs and the Home Minister in regards to police being powerless without the Emergency Ordinance (EO).
When contacted by FMT, Lawyers for Liberty legal adviser Latheefa Koya said that it doesn’t make sense to say police is powerless with the preventive law which was abolished last year.
“The police in nature have other laws to empower them to conduct investigations,” said Latheefa.
The lawyer also added that EO only gives avenue to the police to arrest and detain a person without trial.
“EO is no different than ISA. Both laws contain elements of detention without trial,” she said.
The Malaysian police should emulate international standards in enforcing the law in order to handle serious crimes without compromising the fundamental rights of an accused, she said.
Former top cops Abdul Rahim Noor and Hanif Omar have supported Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s proposal to introduce a similar preventive law to replace the EO.
Zahid Hamidi had said that police have now been rendered powerless to act against criminals after the EO was repealed.
Malaysian Crime Watch Task Force (MyWatch) chairman R Sri Sanjeevan echoes the same view as Latheefa. He too reiterates that it is baseless to say police is powerless without the EO.
“The police should conduct thorough investigations for serious crimes and not take advantage of detaining a person without trial,” he continued.
Losing battle
Malaysians Against Rape, Assault and Snatch (MARAH) founder Dave Avran however has supported the views of former IGPs and the Home Minister.
“They lost a weapon in the war against crime when it was repealed,” stated Dave in an email response to FMT.
The anti-crime leader also stated that preventive laws had been effective in isolating these criminal and their antics from society.
“The police arrest and charge criminals but upon their release on bail, they start committing crime again,” Dave stated
The police are fighting a losing battle, he said.
“There is also an urgent need to ensure that the discretionary powers accorded to the police in the arrest and detention under preventive laws should not be subject to abuse by the law enforcers,” he added.

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