Patriot salutes the IGP for being exemplary reader

LETTER | Patriot welcomes the statement made by IGP Abdul Hamid Bador that “the Special Branch will not be used as a government’s tool to silence dissidents as was done in the previous administration”. He went on to say that “politicians are the most notorious ones and were responsible for the rise of racial and religious hatred, and they are likened to ‘chameleons’ when it came to playing the race and religious cards”.

Patriot has nothing more to add to the frank and honest statement made by the IGP, a statement on where no previous senior police officer would dare tread on.

An exemplary leader, dedicated, and a man of honour, Hamid Bador, when he was the deputy director of the Special Branch, dared to speak up against the wife of a former prime minister for troubling his police officers to do menial jobs during her shopping spree overseas. The outburst had cost him his job.

One of his first statements since becoming the IGP was to warn his officers to disassociate themselves from the underworld gambling operators who were known to have sought favours from police officers. The IGP has also come down hard on corruption among the police ranks and vowed to cleanse the police force of its corrupt image. He had also recently cautioned OCPDs with regards to soliciting money for Hari Raya open houses at police districts.

Besides demanding a high standard of professionalism and discipline, Hamid Bador strives to fight for the welfare and dignity of his personnel in the police force. His heart and soul are fully emplaced to revamp the institution to complement efforts in nation rebuilding. These are qualities of a superb leader and Patriot salutes him.

The question is, are our politicians also having the quality of leadership like our IGP? Or are they preoccupied fighting for positions and drawing long knives to "kill" each other and therefore jeopardising our nation rebuilding effort?

Patriot urges the leadership of the armed forces to come forward with similar statements with regards to fighting corruption in the armed forces, and for the military intelligence, in particular, to disassociate themselves from ever again being a tool of the political masters. 

Recent reports on the Mindef land swap deals, the alleged corruption in the supply of armoured fighting vehicles and currently on the undelivered six helicopters purchased in 2015 are a big shame to the defence ministry that must never ever happen again.

The writer is president, Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.