"JANGAN SAMAKAN SABAH DENGAN SEMENANJUNG (DO NOT EQUATE SABAH WITH THE PENINSULA),"

NKRA target: Enforcement agencies in Sabah worried

Kota Kinabalu: Enforcement agencies in Sabah are worried that the shortage of manpower will seriously undermine efforts to reduce crime, one of the nation's six NKRAs, in the State.

State Criminal Investigation Department Chief, SAC II Zainal Abidin Kasim, said agencies like the police were not only shortchanged in that department in Sabah but also lack the equipment to investigate cases in locations with less accommodating landscapes in the State.

Explaining his views during the Question and Answer session during the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Open Day at Magellan Sutera here, Thursday, he pointed out the targets of the Crime Lab initiatives under the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) were not impossible but that the obstacles in Sabah were different to that of the peninsula.

"Jangan samakan Sabah dengan semenanjung (do not equate Sabah with the peninsula)," he said, to loud applause from the participants.

"(For instance) I only have about 400 men (CID personnel) in Sabah with a population of about four million while in the city (police force) there are only 44 CID policemen.

"Like previously, there was a murder in Kinabatangan but it took us 12 hours just to reach the place because we didn't have proper transport and we also don't have a forensic team for that area," Zainal said.

"If we could, we want to be better than CSI Miami," he said, to laughter from the floor.

Although the State police force managed to solve about 41 per cent of the crime and reduce the crime rate by five per cent last year, he said, the manpower shortage would take its toll.

"Some of my men go home at 5am and have to come back to work at 8am," he said, adding the ratio of a policeman to the population in Sabah was 1:700.

A representative from the State Department of Environment also voiced the same frustration, saying they only had 15 people to contend with about 300 Environment Impact Assessments (EIA).

"Although I'm talking based on environmental protection, it is impossible to undertake the (Crime Lab) initiatives with low manpower and logistics," she said.

Backing Zainal, Papar Police Chief, DSP Nek Zaidi Zakaria hoped the logistical problem in Sabah would be addressed properly.

"It's not appropriate to go investigate a case in remote areas using a Kancil.

Every time the Public Service Department (JPA) comes over, they promise to give a four-wheel-drive vehicle, but the 'will' also never arrives."

Others also expressed views on other points of the initiatives, with Kota Belud Management Chief, ASP Wan Kim Guan, touching on how the Criminal Procedure Code has been amended in such a way that it works to the advantage of wrong-doers instead of the enforcement authorities.

Lawyer Muammar Julkarnain proposed the extensive use of intelligence-led policing through the use of forensic technology such as DNA databank and also CCTV systems like those implemented in Western countries.

But he also pointed out the need to have a law governing CCTVs to prevent abuse.

Meanwhile, Nek Zaidi suggested heavier punishment on addicts of designer drugs, pointing out the existing penalties were not sufficient to deter such addicts who are the culprits behind most snatch-thefts in the country.

The talk on the 55 initiatives of the Crime Lab were presented by team leader Abd Aziz Md Noor and his two team members, Mohd Jamil Ahmad and Wan Samsudin Ahmad.

The Crime Lab recommended the initiatives for implementation to reduce the nation's overall crime index by five per cent by December 2010, reduce street crime by 20 per cent by the year end, reduce fear among the public of becoming a crime victim, increase public satisfaction on police performance and bring an additional 1,000 violent crime offenders to trial by December 2010.