IT MAY BE THE EFFECT OF MORE EMPOWERED COPS DUE TO THE ANTI-CORRUPTION CAMPAIGNS, OR SIMPLY THAT LUCK HAS DESERTED POLITICIANS, BUT THEIR NAMES ARE CROPPING UP MORE OFTEN IN POLICE CASES THESE DAYS. SOMETIMES IT HAS BEEN THE POLITICIANS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE LAW, OTHER TIMES THEIR CHILDREN HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN THE WRONG PLACES, SERIOUSLY DENTING THE ‘CLEAN’ IMAGES POLITICIANS LIKE TO MAINTAIN.HOWEVER, IF ONE FELT THAT SUCH ACTIONS PROBABLY MADE THE COPS PROUDER, IT IS NOT SO. THOSE IN THE KHAKI DEPARTMENT ARE USUALLY APOLOGETIC WHEN BOOKING POLITICIANS OR THEIR KIN, FEARING TRANSFERS TO SOME OTHER REMOTE PLACES.EVERY PARTY HAS HAD ITS SHARE OF EMBARRASSMENT,UMNO HAS BEEN BRIMMING OVER WITH MANY OF THEIR LEADERS BEING DRAGGED INTO SOME OR THE OTHER CONTROVERSY. A RAID BY THE CRIME BRANCH AT A AH HING NOTORIOUS GAMBLER’S DEN WHO ALREADY HAS 11 OFFENCES AGAINST HIM AT FIVE POLICE STATIONS – WAS NEARLY BOOKED IN A 12TH CASE. HE HAD BEEN HAULED UP FOR THREATENING AN IRON TRADER, BUT THE INTERVENTION OF UMNO POLICE LETTING OFF WITH ONLY A WARNING AND NOTICE UNDER THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE. A MERE DENIAL TO AN ALLEGATION OF CRIME DATA MANIPULATION SUGGESTS THE POLICE LACK CREDIBLE DATA WITH WHICH TO DISPROVE THE CLAIM, DAP LAWMAKER TONY PUA SAID TODAY.
“If there is indeed no manipulation of data as claimed by PDRM (Royal Malaysia Police), how else can they explain the shockingly divergent trends between index and non-index crime?” asked Pua.
Yesterday, former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan expressed a similar view, saying that authorities needed to refute the allegation with objective data in order to head off public speculation.
Last week, an anonymous letter, purportedly written by a policeman who penned his name as Sumun Osram, had alleged that crime cases were being methodically shifted from “index” crime into “non-index” offences that were not registered as part of the official statistics presented by Putrajaya’s efficiency unit PEMANDU.
In Malaysia, the police divide crime into two categories, index and non-index — the former defined as crime that is reported with sufficient regularity and significance to be a meaningful indicator of the crime situation while the latter is regarded as minor in nature.
Yesterday, the police dismissed the claim as “erroneous”, and maintained that both sets of data were taken into account for its crime statistics. It added that “overall crime (Index + Non-Index) has in fact reduced in 2010, 2011 and 2012”.
Pua said today, however, that there was a “significant drop in index crime” but that this was accompanied by “drastic increase in non-index crime” from 2007 to 2011, which appeared to corroborate the anonymous letter.
Using crime statistics provided by the police, Pua said that while index crime had dropped 24.7 per cent from 2007 to 2011, non-index crime has increased 68.7 per cent over the same period.
“What is even more glaring is the fact that ‘non-index crime’ is increasing annually as a proportion of total crime since 2007 based on PDRM data,” he said.
“Under normal circumstances, if the crime situation in the country has improved as much as boasted by the authorities, then both index and non-index criminal cases should show a declining trend,” Pua said.
Pua also pointed to the significant drop in crime-fighting performance “after non-index crime is taken into account” as “strong evidence of manipulation”.
He said Putrajaya had previously “boasted its achievement of 15.4 per cent, 11.1 per cent and 10.1 per cent reduction in the crime index over 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively”, based on index crime alone.
But PDRM yesterday said that the combined index and non-index crime has dropped 7 per cent, 9 per cent and 5.3 per cent in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively.
The data did not, however, assuage Pua.
“While the total index and non-index crime cases based on PDRM data has indeed dropped over the past 2-3 years, it appears that the data has been systematically manipulated to present an inflated over-achievement under the Najib administration,” said Pua.
Last month, PEMANDU defended itself from public criticism after a spate of crime incidents that seemed to contradict the image painted by its crime statistics.
The agency, along with the police and Home Ministry, had continued to stand by its claim that the country’s crime rate has dipped considerably since initiatives under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) were put in place two years ago.
PEMANDU’s crime reduction NKRA (national key results areas) director Eugene Teh had in July released fresh statistics to show that index crime in Malaysia dropped by 10.1 per cent from January to May this year compared to the same period last year.
The agency had earlier released figures to show that index crime had dropped by 11.1 per cent from 2010 to last year while street crime dipped 39.7 per cent in the same period.
If the recent revelations of an experienced police officer is telling enough you have not heard enough.
As part of the BBC’s Who Runs Your World? series, Jonathan Kent in Kuala Lumpur looks at how Malaysia’s notorious triad gangs are run.
(By now Ah Hing would already be a tai koh, if still surviving)
Ah Hing makes no bones about his world and his life. “I admit that I am a bad guy, and that I’m a gangster,” he said.
“So who runs your world?” I asked – to which he gave a simple reply : “The government”.
Retired Federal Police Chief Musa Hassan is lying outright in denying that he had contacts with shady underworld kingpins Goh Cheng Poh, or Tengku Goh, and BK Tan when he was Inspector-General of Police.
So says former Commercial Crime Investigations Department Director Ramli Yusuff (left), who added that evidence gathered by his CCID team, an unchallenged statutory declaration and court testimonies prove otherwise.
Furthermore, in Ramli’s abuse of power trial in the sessions court in Kota Kinabalu, Musa had been found to be an unreliable witness when testifying against Ramli.
“Musa was the last witness to testify in my abuse of power trial. He was found by Sessions (Court) Judge Supang Lian to have contradicted the testimonies of seven police officers under him. Hence, the Judge dismissed Musa’s testimony as unreliable,” Ramli added.
“Here, we have a junior judge passing such a remark on the then serving IGP. This is a disgrace to the Police Force,” he told Malaysiakini in an interview.
The judge made the remark in 2009 when acquitting and discharging Ramli without calling for his defence. Ramli, who has since been cleared on all five charges he insists were trumped-up, spoke to Malaysiakini when asked to comment on Musa’s interview with the news portal in May this year, in which the former Police Chief denied knowing underworld kingpins Tengku Goh and BK Tan.
Tengku Goh is reportedly an underworld boss who enjoyed Musa’s backing when Musa (right with A-G Gani Patail) was Johor Police Chief. Musa was said to have eliminated all loan sharks, money-laundering syndicates, gaming and drug syndicates and crime lords in Johor, but allowed Tengku Goh to continue operating – until the Bukit Aman CCID found out about Goh’s activities.
As a result of this discovery, called the Copgate affair, Ramli and his men were instead hit with trumped-up charges by Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail, who was accused of colluding with the then Police Chief.
Ramli was eventually cleared without his defence being called and appeals by the AG against the decision were thrown out by the upper courts. Meanwhile, Ramli’s men who were similarly charged were also acquitted without their defence called. The prosecution, however, did not appeal their acquittals.
Some of these Police officers, who were driving taxis to make ends meet following their suspension from the force, have now been reinstated and promoted.
What the CCID team uncovered…
In the Malaysiakini interview, Ramli also denied that his CCID team encroached into Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID’s) jurisdiction as alleged by Musa.
Acting on information received, Ramli said he and his team recorded intelligence statements from underworld whistleblowers, who detailed the illegal activities committed by Tengku Goh and his involvement with Musa.
“The Police submitted this information to Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharom, who directed us to continue with the investigations as the government wanted to curb all illegal activities such as money laundering, illegal gaming, loan shark or illegal money-lending activities, drug smuggling and gangsterism.
“When we have information, we investigate. How can we stop investigations (when we come across any illegal activity involving syndicate members in the course of our investigation)?
“We are police officers and we are supposed to investigate, regardless of whether the matter comes under the purview of the CID, Anti-Narcotics Department, Internal Security Department or any other department in the police force.
“Our powers are the same, as enshrined under Section 3 of the Police Act 1967 and other relevant laws,” Ramli added.
In the bizarre Copgate affair, Deputy Minister Johari (right) was himself accused of having links with the mob for releasing three gangsters held under the recently repealed Emergency Ordinance, which allowed for detention without trial.
It is believed that Johori ordered Ramli to probe Musa in a tit-for-tat battle between the DeputyMinister and the IGP.
Both men – the politician and the Police Chief – were subsequently cleared of mob involvement by the anti-corruption agency after the scandal broke in 2007.
Ramli said he later got to know that the current Deputy IGP, Khalid Abu Bakar (left), who was then Deputy Director of CID, had investigated Tengku Goh a few months before his men were asked to begin their investigation.
However, Ramli said, he was informed that Khalid’s investigation was stopped by Musa, who claimed that the allegation against Goh was baseless and that some police officers were trying to fix him up.
“Apparently Musa interfered, resulting in the transfer of some of the officers involved in the investigation. Khalid himself was removed as Deputy Director of the CID and appointed Selangor Police hief,” he said.
“How can Musa have the guts to say he does not know Tengku Goh when the fact is that Tengku Goh named him in his affidavit to secure his release as a restricted resident under the Restricted Residence Act?”
Furthermore, Ramli said, he and his team received information that when Musa was Johor Police Chief, he acted against all crime syndicate members, except Tengku Goh.
“You can ask any Police officer in Johor… they will know who Tengku Goh is.”
Ramli accused Musa of blatantly lying when saying that he did not know Tengku Goh.
“He was not telling the truth. How could Musa claim that this particular person was fixed when we recorded statements from sources (whistleblowers) saying otherwise? There is also evidence provided in court to prove this,” he said.
Musa’s son worked with BK Tan
Ramli also questioned how Musa could deny not knowing BK Tan, another shady character who had worked behind the scenes with key personnel in the Police Force on the transfer of certain Police officers.
He cited the sworn statement of a Police officer, ASP Mior Fahmi Ahmad, which said he saw Musa’s son working with BK Tan at his office in Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya, at which former Police Commissioner Othman Talib was also present.
Mior Fahmi, who was transferred from Sabah, was brought to Amcorp Mall by another senior Police officer to meet BK Tan. He was later sent to Johor to take charge of the D7 unit, which handles gaming, vice and secret societies.
“He (Mior Fahmi) was given a house to stay, free of charge, by the syndicate.We also have a statutory declaration from Musa’s former aide-de-camp ASP Nor Azizul Rahim, who disclosed that they discussed the transfer of D7 officers at Musa’s home, together with BK Tan and ex-Police Commissioner Othman.
“Musa was given a list of officers by BK Tan to be issued with transfer orders. These were officers who were on BK Tan’s payroll.
“Moreover, Musa was found to be an unreliable witness by the sessions court in the case against me, and this finding was also affirmed by the High Court in Kota Kinabalu and by the Court of Appeal. So, who are we to believe?” Ramli said.
He said the allegations made against Musa were damaging and based on the statutory declarations as well, Musa’s claim that he does not know BK Tan and Tengku Goh made no sense at all.
Mat Zain, former senior police officer, states there is no other body that is qualified to adjudicate on the present attorney-general than a tribunal.
He said Najib had last March rejected the calls for a tribunal although many credible exposures had been made over Gani’s misconduct in the public domain.
“I placed my trust on the PM to reconsider that stand. If Najib was willing to have an RCI to investigate the influx of illegal immigrants into Sabah, then he should consider the wishes of the people in the peninsula who had asked many times for a tribunal to be formed against Gani for the alleged misconduct,” he said.
Mat Zain Ibrahim, in his open letter sent to Najib two days ago, also revealed another possible misconduct by Gani with regard to documents relating to Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) investigations into the bank accounts of former Malacca chief minister Rahim Tamby Chik.
I always thought that nobody is invincible and untouchable except the Almighty! The question that invariably accompanies this would be: What “hold” has the AG on Jib?
Musa’s former aide, ASP Noor Azizul Rahim, who is now attached to a Federal Ministry, was contacted by Malaysiakini to verify the contents of his Statutory Declaration. However, he declined to make any further comment on the issue, saying that he would nevertheless be willing to testify before a tribunal, should one be set up.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein rejected the need for an inquiry into the scandal.This is nothing but a re-run of a bad movie. If you add all the re-runs it feels like Musa has had his ass probed so many times he lost count. Who ordered his ass probed and who did the probing and when. comedians working on recycled materials hoping to earn some loose change from passersby. Haven’t we heard this before?READMOREhttp://lawmattersjournalmalaysia.blogspot.com
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