Will Authorities Invest In Better Cctvs

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The authorities need a new répertoire of excuses, or a new creative director, to provide the Malaysian rakyat with reasons why crime remains unresolved.
With a roulette wheel, you spin, and you never know where the ball will land. However, when Malaysian CCTVs are involved in solving crime, you soon realise that only high-profile/sensitive cases will fail to yield results.
The usual spin includes unclear images, “not working”, or “sent for maintenance”.
Inspector-General of Police Khalid Ismail recently said that the investigation into the stabbing and injection of Rafizi Ramli's son with a noxious liquid had stalled.
ADSHe said, “We have identified a few individuals from the CCTV footage, but the footage isn’t very clear and the (identities) cannot be ascertained.”
Inspector-General of Police Khalid IsmailMalaysians are sick and tired of reading about faulty CCTVs, usually in the police and MACC lockups. These repeated explanations fuel public suspicion of possible cover-ups.
If more money is needed for regular maintenance or to purchase higher-resolution cameras, why can't Putrajaya provide additional funds to the police? Public confidence in the police is already at an all-time low.
People have died from being beaten up in the police cells, raped, or committed suicide. How many more tragedies will it take before the police show more responsibility and commitment to serve the public? Didn't they swear an oath to protect the community and uphold the Constitution?
The Safe City programme was launched in 2004 by the Local Housing and Government Ministry. CCTVs at street corners, road junctions, or shopping malls in our towns and cities would help reduce crime and make our towns safer.
Facial recognition for smart CCTVs would have boosted public confidence in the police.
At the time, some of us worried about the intrusion into our privacy, but we need not have bothered.
When in opposition…
If a high-profile and vocal MP such as Rafizi Ramli has fallen victim to yet another allegedly faulty CCTV, what hope do the rest of the population have?
In the run-up to the attack on his son, the former economy minister had urged the MACC to open an investigation paper against Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's former political aide turned multimillionaire businessperson Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.
Former minister Rafizi RamliThe controversial Farhash is allegedly linked to a coal mining scandal in Sabah. However, the MACC recently cleared him of the alleged links.
Farhash also dismissed the rumours of his involvement in the attack on Rafizi's son, calling the allegations "crazy".
ADSWhen in opposition, before the turning point in Malaysian politics in 2018, Rafizi exposed many corruption scandals involving Umno-Baru politicians, their families, and cronies.
If my memory serves me right, there were no physical attacks on Rafizi, his team or family members. There were several threats to take him to court, but no one was cowardly and stooped so low, to attack his son and wife, both of whom have nothing to do with his actions.
As the stakes get higher in 21st-century Malaysian politics, we have hit an all-time low when innocent children are attacked.
The attack on Rafizi's son shows that the people involved have much to lose. It does not require a genius to work out who has the most to lose in the dirty world of Malaysian politics-cum-contracts-cum-cronies.
The attack happened in the car park of a shopping mall in Putrajaya, when two individuals dressed in black and wearing full-face helmets dragged his son from the car and stabbed him with a syringe.
Pathetic excuse
If someone said the attack had occurred in the car park of a shopping mall in Bercham, a satellite town of Ipoh, or Silibin, then the chances of a fully functioning CCTV in the car park are probably low.
But the attack happened in Putrajaya, where every street corner and road junction is probably monitored by a few CCTVs, its wide boulevards monitored by a central control centre 24/7.
One cannot break wind in Putrajaya without the security forces being unaware. Were all the CCTVs in the vicinity grainy?
Didn't previous PMs claim that Putrajaya was built to be a safe, secure, smart city?
In 2019, the late Pakatan Harapan law minister, Liew Vui Keong, announced an allocation of RM73 million for all lockups in Malaysia to be equipped with CCTVs. In Budget 2021, the government set aside RM17 billion for the Home Ministry to beef up national security and improve the level of safety and public order.
Despite funding to procure CCTVs, a 16-year-old girl was raped in January 2021 while in police custody at the Miri Central police station in Sarawak.
The Sarawak police commissioner, Aidi Ismail, said that footage of the rape was not available because the CCTV camera did not have a recording function.
Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbani died after being detained at the MACC premises. A Kugan, N Dharmendran, S Balamurugan and Velentino Mesa are some of the people who died at police stations, some of which were probably equipped with CCTVs.
Pastor Raymond Koh's abduction was captured by a private house CCTV, but not a word was said about the cameras at every lamp post or street corner to detect the convoy of cars used in his kidnapping.
The repeated use of the faulty CCTV excuse is pathetic, and it undermines public confidence and creates the perception of incompetence within the police force. - Mkini
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, X.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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