KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 — Despite the Special Branch report claiming that the majority of police officers patrolling the borders are corrupt, the Dewan Rakyat Speaker has rejected an opposition motion to debate the issue, claiming the information was "unverified".
The motion was submitted by PKR Alor Star MP Gooi Hsiao Loong yesterday but Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia notified him of the rejection this morning.
In the letter, Pandikar said that the motion cannot be debated as the allegation about the corrupt border officers was unverified and did not come from the relevant ministries.
"I am disappointed… his reply was inconsistent with the reaction of the home minister after the report was published by New Straits Times.
"It was reported that the home minister deemed the expose as something serious and he had recommended that the border security duties be given to the army," Gooi told reporters in Parliament here.
On June 3, local daily New Straits Times cited the police’s Special Branch claiming that 80 per cent of Malaysian law enforcement officers at the country’s borders were engaged in corruption, with some purportedly also on the smuggling syndicates’ payroll instead of merely taking bribes.
The claims by the police’s intelligence arm were purportedly based on surveillance and intelligence data collected over 10 years at border checkpoints manned by enforcement agencies such as the Immigration Department, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, the Anti-Smuggling Unit and the police’s General Operations Force.
Zahid was then reported to have recommended that the army takeover the duty until investigations into the information is completed. Minister of Defence Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein was also reported to have agreed to the idea.
“So how can the Speaker say that this is not verified?” Gooi said, referring to his motion on the issue.
He added that the issue was of extreme importance as corruption has played a pivotal role in compromising Malaysia's border security.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi revealed three weeks ago that 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.
This followed an earlier announcement on May 13, when the police confirmed that two local policemen were nabbed along with 36 others for alleged involvement in human trafficking activities in northern Malaysia and southern Thailand.
The duo are believed to have aided syndicate members obtain safe passage for their human cargo.
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.
