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1. Malaysian Police “High Crime Solvers” is Misleading The Sun headlines, NST pg 4, Malay Mail pg 13 19/3/2006.

2. Challenge to Federal CID Chief- disclose real crime solving rate based on actual conviction rate after a full criminal trial and the accused being legally represented and being on bail.

3. Alarming rise in crime rate.

We refer to the aforesaid newsreports and dispute the Malaysian police high crime solving rate for 2006 at 37% and 48% for 2005 which is apparently surpassing Interpol’s benchmark at 20%.

Interpol’s guidelines are:-

1.      If there is a confession or solid evidence against the accused.

2.      The accused is caught red-handed though he/she pleads not guilty.

3.      The accused is identified regardless of whether he/she is being detained, still at large or has died.

4.      Investigations showed no offence has been committed.

Based on the aforesaid Interpol’s guidelines we dispute the Federal CID Director’s announcement for the following reasons:-

1.      The confessions procured as in guideline No. 1 as in almost all cases they are not procured voluntarily (Note: Even the learned Attorney General has last year issued a written directive that confession statements are not to be used unless with his consent).

2.      The accused is identified as per guideline No. 3 but he may not have been found guilty in a court of law after a full trial and after having being legally represented and while being on bail.

3.      Investigations showed no offence has been committed as per guideline No.4. Based on the numerous complaints received we estimate that in about 70% of the cases the police find the easy way out by closing the file with a “No further action (NFA) remark”.

4.      A suspect is gunned down and a number of criminal cases are attributed to him when he cannot defend himself/not found guilty in a Court of Law.

5.      A suspect dies / is killed in police custody and again a number of criminal cases are attributed to him when he cannot deny himself / not found guilty in a Court of Law.

6.      Thousands of suspects are detained without trial under the Emergency Ordinance and other such obsolete laws every year and again scores of criminal cases are attributed to them without they being able to defend themselves / not found guilty in a Court of law.

7.      About 90% of suspects plead guilty not necessarily because they are guilty but because they cannot afford legal fees to have lawyers to defend themselves.

8.      About 95% of suspects plead guilty not necessarily because they are guilty but because they cannot afford the monetary bail.

We are however satisfied with guideline No.2 that the accused is being caught red handed though he/she pleads not guilty.

Our concern is that the real criminals have not been brought to justice and are out on the loose and this is further escalating the alarmingly high increase in crime-rates.

As such we are of the opinion that the Interpol’s guidelines are not applicable under the Malaysian circumstances.

Therefore the Malaysian crime solving rate at 37% in 2006 and 48% in 2005 and again surpassing the Interpol Benchmark is not a true and accurate assessment of the crime solving rate in Malaysia but appears to be more of a damage control and/or a public relations exercise to camouflage the alarming rise in crime rate and/or the recent Transparent International reporting the police coming up tops in the corruption perception Index Rate in Malaysia.

Kindly instead explain this alarming rise in crime and corruption rate which we attribute to police inefficiency, police abuse of powers and police “above the law mindset”.

Conclusion

We hereby challenge the IGP/CID Director to announce the true and accurate crime solving rate in Malaysia based on cases where a conviction has been secured after a full criminal trial, the accused being on bail and legally represented which in any event is our (PWHRC’s) benchmark based on local circumstances.

We estimate the Malaysian crime-solving rate based on our benchmark at about 5% which is about 87% lesser than the rate the police have claimed or about 75% below the Interpol’s benchmark.

Thank You,

Yours Faithfully.
P.Uthayakumar,
Legal Adviser

s.k      1. Y.A.B. DATO’ SERI ABDULLAH AHMAD BADAWI
Prime Minister of Malaysia
And Minister of Internal Security
Block Utama,                                            03-88883444
Bangunan Perdana Putra,                        Email: reduceredtape@pmo.gov.my
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan, Email: abdullah@kdn.gov.my
62502 Putrajaya.                                Email: ppm@pmo.gov.my
2.Y.Bhg Tan Sri Musa Hassan
Inspector General of Police
Ibu Pejabat Polis Di Raja Malaysia                              Fax: 22731326/Post
Jalan Bukit Aman
Kuala Lumpur
3. Y.Bhg. Dato Christopher Wan Soo Kee
Federal Police CID Director
Ibu Pejabat Polis Di Raja Malaysia                              Fax: 22733832/Post
Jalan Bukit Aman
Kuala Lumpur

Pwhrc19/3/2007-highcrimesolvers-hd6/sp