KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said today the actions of only a “handful of black sheep” in the police force should not be used to generalise the entire law enforcement unit.
The national police chief said it was untrue that the force is an “institution that seems to think itself above the law”, insisting that no one in the police force believes such a thing.
“Firstly, we have never considered ourselves to be above the law.
“We view ourselves as mere enforcers of the law, who are at the same time, subject to the same law,” he said in a statement today in response to former Chief Justice of Malaysia Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah’s remarks in a May 28 forum.
Having acknowledged the existence of a handful police officers who flout the law while enforcing it, Khalid further stated that these “black sheep” only amounted to a “minuscule portion of the police force”.
“It cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be termed as ‘institutionalised’,” he said.
Khalid also said that the police and Malaysians are actually on the same page when it comes to upholding civil liberties and fostering trust between the two.
He said the police had initiated numerous reforms and welcome contributions that can help do so, but noted that criticisms that painted it in general strokes as lacking in “integrity and honour” would give it the stigma of allegedly being a “corrupt institution”.
Khalid reminded Malaysians that there remained many good police officers willing to give their lives for the nation.
“While some officers abuse their power, the majority are ‘good cops’.
“For every officer who visits harm on someone or violates the public’s trust, there are countless others who follow the rules and who want nothing more than to protect, serve and return home safe at the end of their shift,” he said.
Dzaiddin, who was formerly in the police force before becoming a judge, had delivered a speech at a May 28 public forum titled “Rogue Cops: Workable Solutions — Police Accountability in Malaysia”.
Dzaiddin is best known as having headed the 2004 Royal Commission of Inquiry into Police Reform, which mooted the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).
