KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — Enforcement officers stationed in Perlis will be rotated to help curb human trafficking and stem the practice of bribery, the state Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Azlan Man has said.
Azlan said this move was important to prevent enforcement officers from being overly familiar, The Star daily reported today.
“I don’t want to point my fingers at anyone but such issues of an enforcement officer being involved in bribery and other crimes were bound to happen,” he was quoted saying.
Perlis Enforcement Committee chairman Datuk Mat Rawi Kassim said he had already spoken to the directors of all enforcement agencies within the state on the new rotation system, which is expected to kick in soon.
“It is time we put a stop. We cannot allow these people to be ‘kings’ and carry out crimes as they wish,” he said.
Yesterday, English language daily the New Straits Times (NST) reported that a Special Branch report showed that 80 per cent of Malaysian law enforcement officers at the country’s borders were engaged in corruption, with some purportedly also on the payroll of syndicates - smuggling drugs, weapons and humans, instead of merely taking bribes.
NST also reported that Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi wants army personnel to replace law enforcement officers manning Malaysian borders to stem the scourge of corruption by smuggling syndicates.
Today, NST reported Immigration Department director-general Datuk Mustafa Ibrahim as saying that the department would stop the practice of transferring suspect staff to another area, but will instead transfer them to a different sector pending investigation and terminate their services if found guilty of serious offences.
Mustafa reportedly said the department had transferred 10 problematic staff since January this year.
NST also reported today Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency director-general Admiral Maritime Datuk Mohd Amdan Kurish as saying all allegations of misconduct would be probed, with the entire crew of a ship to be disciplined even if only one member had committed the offence.
Last week, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi said 12 police officers have been arrested over suspected collusion with human traffickers who used smuggling camps in Perlis as a transit point for migrants, adding that investigations are still ongoing to determine if they were directly involved or just facilitators.
The recent discovery in Padang Besar, Perlis of nearly 140 mass graves and nearly 30 suspected people smuggling camps came after repeated denials of their existence by government officials.
Over 90 policemen are expected to join in the second phase of exhuming graves in Perlis from today onwards.
