‘Proposal to revise outdated laws timely’

KULAI: Inspector- General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has described the deputy prime minister’s proposal to revise outdated laws as timely and appropriate.

He said the Royal Malaysia Police ( PDRM) fully supported the proposal and left it to the relevant parties and Parliament to determine whether certain laws needed to be amended.

“I will leave it to Parliament. If Parliament considers that (there are) laws (which) should be amended ... then, in my opinion, they should be amended because there are laws which are outdated.

“By-laws were made before independence, so I think the time has come for us to make amendments, to streamline penalties and so on,” he told reporters after closing the 28th Malaysian Auxiliary Police Conference here yesterday.

He said this when commenting on a statement by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi two days ago, that

I will leave it to Parliament. If Parliament considers that (there are) laws (which) should be amended ... then, in my opinion, they should be amended because there are laws which are outdated. Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, Inspector-General of Police

the review would be carried out on all existing legislation concerning the laws under the home ministry to ensure they were not outdated and time sensitive.

Ahmad Zahid had said the review should be made to identify outdated laws which were no longer suitable and wanted to ensure that legislation be amended accordingly, for implementation in the next 30 years.

Meanwhile, Khalid said 20 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were under investigation on suspicion of using questionable funds, with 15 NGOs having been called to testify.

He said the interim report would be presented to the deputy prime minister soon.

“To the NGOs, I want to remind them...there is nothing to fear if such funds are not used to violate the law.

“(But) if they are using the funds for the purpose of threatening parliamentary democracy, they should be worried because the police give serious attention to this issue as we do not want any party to try and threaten our country,” added Khalid.

According to news reports, about 20 of the 50,000 NGOs registered with the Registrar of Societies ( ROS) were under investigation since last month, on suspicion of receiving questionable funds from individuals and organisations abroad. — Bernama