The police should be under an unbiased minister

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw proposes that the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) be placed under a minister who has no party political, religious and racial bias.

The RMP is under the Home Affiars Minister Dato' Seri Hishammuddin who is from Umno. Hisham looks after the appointments, promotions and remunerations of the police with an annual allocation of over RM 3 billion. Hence, RMP is beholden to Hisham. We can only hope that he is not prejudiced in anyway.

Dr Tan spoke at the DAP dinner at the Crystal Crown in Jinjang on 26.4.2009, commenting on One Malaysia that includes integrity, meritocracy and loyalty.

For over 40 years, DAP talks about Malaysian Malaysia that stresses Malaysia for all Malaysians with all the races respecting and trusting one another. Now, Najib presents One Malaysia to look after all ethnicg roups as the pillar for the process of national solidarity. If he wants to call the concept One Malaysia. This is fine with us, as long as he truly practises it.

In 2005, the Royal Commission on RMP recommended the increase of the force from 90,000 to 150,000 within 5 years. We hope this will be achieved, making it more multiracial. The police should be paid commensurate with the nature of their work. We should try to stamp out police irregularities.

There are allegations of police favouring the Barisan Nasional Government such as its action in handling the issue of Speaker of thePerak State Assembly.

We propose that there should be serious consideration on having a truly unbiased minister in charge of the police. He or she acts in the interest of security of the nation, not on other bases such as party political.

Dr Tan Seng Giaw