Malaysianinsider reports today that Najib plans to deploy Rela members “to curb escalating crime”.
The same report has it that human rights activists and opposition lawmakers are alarmed at this intended move on the part of the government and contend that the use of these “armed, untrained Rela members, who number about 700,000, to fight crime could lead to “massive” rights violations”.
What do you think?
Have your say here.
Posted in: Polls
The People's Parliament 
teohjitkhiam
July 29, 2009
“Should Rela be deployed to combat crime?” NO. PERIOD!
Why can’t the Home Minister just increase the number of police personnel meant for crime prevention and patrol duties? A volunteer body doing police work smacks of vigilantism!
Felix Peter
July 29, 2009
I heard a BBC comment some time ago about Rela, it wasn’t a welcome news.
It would be a serious flaw of governance which would add to the already deteriorated law and security in the country.
Despite the wide ranging efforts, look at the many money landing posters displayed all over in Skudai/Perling etc, it shows that the local council and the various departments are least bothered to do anything to curb their activities. Too much talk la, sian!
clearwater
July 29, 2009
NO! Too much leeway for potential abuse by untrained non-professionals. Why can’t the Police combat crime? They should ask themselves why.
Mei
July 29, 2009
Since that PDRM could not do their job properly, I suppose someone has to do it. In this case, it looks like it is going to be the RELA.
And if the RELA is doing a good job, than we can scrap the PDRM!
Mei
July 29, 2009
Sorry, correction…
And if The RELA is doing a good job, than we can srap off the PDRM!
YouMustBeKidding
July 29, 2009
when MACC and PDRM has already run amok.. and he want to introduce us more evil and corrupt enforcer. The problem is police is not doing any job other than taking bribe. And The fact is people dun trust the authority anymore.
tehlt
July 29, 2009
Yes. Provided they are properly trained first and in an assisting capacity to the PRDM
ivanyang53
July 29, 2009
Another of those evil schemes coming up!
Sara
July 29, 2009
Wat, more viglante justice, keh?? Immigrantion enforcement and Police not enough, meh??
Common Sense
July 29, 2009
Given a choice,
I rather be robbed by a common theif than a Rela personnel.
These Rela guys are worst than hyena.
Bessy
July 29, 2009
Gosh, isn’t that convenient? Instead of tackling the REAL problem of the police force, i.e. bad leadership and inefficiency, let’s just reach for the easy solution.
J Caine
July 29, 2009
Oh no! Its bad enough having to deal with the polis with their ‘cari makan’ attitude. Now we have to deal with another branch of so called authority whose credibility is even worse. Be prepared to empty your wallets like the immigrants workers.
Andrew C
July 29, 2009
Yes, i fully agreed with you! 1 licensed gangster already big headache for the society…now another up and coming??? The former wouldn’t agreed as well!!!!
TQBANG
July 29, 2009
here goes the country to the mouth of wolf. wat a ******* idea from the peeeeeem
Siva
July 29, 2009
If only the police did their job there will be no reason for RELA to even exist.
Since Police have aux unit they should deploy them instead of RELA.
tomdickharry
July 29, 2009
too many enforcers/vigilantes too little to share which eventually open to many more abuse of power,corruptions and leads to someone top to resign(myth) and finally the ‘Great’ Party crumbles and falls on the 13th GE(fact)
3rdmind
July 29, 2009
Despite all obvious reasons why people disaproved this “rela” groups,it seems the authority is having a hidden agenda to remain this useless group- it could be a stanby force- for them to mobilise this brainless group when they need some ‘tools’ to surpress the peacefull people on the other side of the politic. Bear in mind this brainless group are not easy to be identified- how they conduct, act and ‘hide’ later when they committed crime against people like YOU & ME! This is very much like keeping a reserve which consist of actually inferior quality members who cannot be responsible for their behavious! They are national shame!
splim
July 29, 2009
Say yes if we want more Kugans and Teoh Beng Hocks.
agentofsin
July 29, 2009
That would be sheer madness, some of them have not even reached Standard 6 in schools and as it is many immigrants have complained about their high handedness when doing operasi. If you want crime to go up then you put them on the street and you will get sheer anarchy.Why does’nt the PM discuss such critical issues with his advisers first
bayi
July 29, 2009
RELA has such a poor record that even the devil would say no to this outrageous proposal!
queenie
July 29, 2009
al jazeera also reported abuse of authority. uniforms and name tags do not make a law enforcer. in fact, under guise/vested powers of being officers, crime became `legalised’ so heck no to the vote.
Moan
July 29, 2009
This is insane, first MACC, now RELA,…… what’s next?
Moan
July 29, 2009
Yeah, the moment a person is technically (or questionably) a criminal suspect, then only the impact of such decision will be felt.
Johnny Ice
July 29, 2009
About 75 years ago, the same thing was starting in Germany, and we all know how it ended…
Malik
July 29, 2009
BEWARE!!!
Najib successfully used Rela members “to curb escalating crime” as an excuse. His main objective will be used all Rela members as postal vote to ensure UMNO/BN win the next General Election.
jambala
July 29, 2009
I cannot help but think the overwhelming responses here will convice the UMNO leadership accordingly-this Rela will be a boon to help police control mob agitators like you all just in case!
Rtan
July 29, 2009
Definety NO NO NO
They are just a big bunch of Hooligans and Bullies who knows nothing of the laws.
What is the police doing???
eagle-eye
July 29, 2009
The trained PDRM are governed by so many laws, yet there are so many transgressions. These untrained RELA guys are not accountable to anybody. Very soon expect RELA to beat up people at candle light vigils and demonstrations.
Anyway this is an insult to the PDRM.
yunnan
July 29, 2009
Agree…..100%
The police have no time to combat crime, they’re too busy cleaning UMNO’s shit.
Winwin
July 29, 2009
Come on, look at how the “supposed to have been properly trained” police behave. How the @#*% we can trust these not properly trained rela?
Watchman
July 29, 2009
Let Rela take over the current job of PDRM, i.e. harassing and victimising any non-umno group or gathering.
This would leave the PDRM free to do the job they were supposed to be doing in the first place… fighting crime, arresting criminals, and making the country a safer place for all malaysian citizens!
IbnAbdHalim
July 29, 2009
Simple solution. Redirect the police to its original duties and increase its strength. Stop harassing and depriving the public of its civil rights and RELA need not be deployed at all. Involving RELA will invite more problems.
foodforthought
July 29, 2009
Najib is trying very hard to convince the Rakyat that he and umno-bn are half past six morons.
Paul Warren
July 29, 2009
Maybe Najib’s favourite TV show in his teens was Robert Wagner’s “To Catch a Thief”, and walla, who has he got??
Hilmi
July 29, 2009
Rela’s already abusing their status now when they’re not even allowed to do much. I can’t imagine how they’d be when their status is upgraded to be almost equal to the police…. If the police are crooks in uniform right now I can’t imagine what Rela would be…
Shakuntala
July 29, 2009
I spoke to a Rela supposedly keeping law and order at a Hindu Temple function, last Saturday. He had nothing much to do, mind you, everything was rather peaceful, except for the noise coming from devotees praying and the beat of the drums.
At least he was smiling and nodding his head was friendly, unlike the police! There was no semblance of authority….all the Rela on duty appeared as if they were mere decorative pieces adding some extra colour.
At the end of the day,one imagines that the Police would be selected to guard the rich and the famous or perhaps are being prepared to be on the streets to curb innocent people demonstrating peacefully for a worthwhile cause, instead of being deployed to fight serious crime.
Quite a lot of surprises these days.?….which make you feel sick instead of secure.
andrew ran
July 29, 2009
what wrong with you people?in the 1st place the idea of putting Rela to combat crime should not even arises.They are the worse people to be call it.If our police are so incompetent in doing their job, what do you expect the RELA to do?I think we should call in the army, at least they are a better lot.
Bathmanathan
July 29, 2009
Andrew, for heaven’s sake the army cannot be better. Fighting men don’t belong in the streets and their training and pysche is for the battlefield. Revamp the polce force along the lines of what the RCI recommended. And of course the nexus between the police force and organised crime has to be broken too but does the PM have the balls for it since these criminals have their tentacles in every BN component party. After the favor provided by the PDRM to the PM on the C4 issue, me thinks he does not have it.God save Malaysia but then these guys are bigger than God..at least in M’sia.
Hopeless
July 29, 2009
aiyah. polis bz peeling ah long stickers: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/33600-police-go-after-ah-long-stickers-posters-
Andy
July 29, 2009
Tell u what PM, Why don’t you just legalize the use of firearms to all citizens, then we will not need to ue RELA members or even the police force. We will then be well equipped to combat crime on our own. But you must remember that you will then need to employ a SHERIFF AND DEPUTY SHERIFF. Maybe that Musa fella and that Hisham fella would make good candidates.
Frankly, we will definitely see a drastic drop in crime rates throughout the country within the next three months; no need to wait one year.
Pro-dharma
July 29, 2009
Crime in this country is due to discriminitive policies practised by UNITED MALAYSIAN GOVERMENT`S NAZI ORGANIZATION (UMNO).Crime in this country will never be solved as long the above NAZI oraganization rules this country which marginalize the poors of these country which transcend the varous races in Malaysia.It is very wrong to use RELA since it has very bad records and it is no better than MACC(MALAYSIAN GOVERMENT`S ASSOCIATION OF CROOKS AND CRIMINALS)
justme
July 29, 2009
The rakyat will have to carry double the amount of loose cash if those were to be unleashed.
Instead of fighting crimes, maybe, more roadblocks being set up, checking on brake lights. Money spinning machines that is?
Bathmanathan
July 29, 2009
Hiring Rela to stop crime is akin to bringing in one more hog to the feeding trough. Besides Rela will eventually morph (orchestrated of course) into another Barisan youth thug type organisation that will be used to harrass all and sundry and of course opposition members and supporters. And like the nazi youth organisations, even mothers cannot be safe from their brainwashed children.Seeing how many traffic cops are hiding behind all manner of objects waiting to jump onto unsuspecting motorists guilty of nothing more serious than the harmless u turn, it might be a good idea to convert them to regular cops and put them to fighting crime.
TheDoer
July 29, 2009
I’m not sure how many of you have seen it. But they screw up at directing traffic. What more do you want from them?
Eg.
1. Confusing customers in Tesco, on who should go first, when there was no problem to begin with.
2. Helping cars illegally park at the side of the road at the pasar malam. Causing problems for all motorist.
3. Allowed bi-directional flow of traffic at a narrow road near the portuguese settlement on Christmas day. Causing a massive deadlock, which they did not realise and did not know what to do for a long time.
Rela volunteers are just normal everyday people, and sometimes people with too much time on their hands. Sure some of them are good, but overall….
Artic turban
July 29, 2009
This would be the Malaysian version of Hitler’s Brownshirts i.e. armed thugs, loosers,criminals. so what happens is all those pro bn protestors and umno youth celakas will just join Rela, as entry level standards are so low and become legitimised armed vigilantes to do umno’s bidding. Listen the whole idea of this RELA is to have a dirty no-holds-barred gangsters to go around intimiditing everyone. They will answer to no laws and will do as they please. We don’t want to go there, remember the cheras toll incident where gangsters were employed to beat up the protestors while the police just watched, this is what you will see happen. First of all why is the police so ineffective in fighting crime, Its because they are
a)not focusing on the job they are supposed to do,
instead of going out there to arrest criminals they are behaving like criminals themselves, hounding and attacking peacefull demonstrators and the opposition parties.
b) they say the fish rots at the head, well folks if police personnell have made serious allegations against the IGP> THAT HE IS ON THE PAYROLL OF THE CRIMINALS> as RPK’s exposee’ with copies of statutory declarations, what more can you say, the chief cop should be behind bars.
c) the cops themselves are criminals, heading / protecting criminal gangs, or else why haven’t all those illegal massage pallors, gambling dens etc near police stations closed down.
LETS BE VERY FRANK HERE, THE COPS KNOW VERY WELL WHATS HAPPENNING AROUND THEM, i.e they are paid to look elsewhere, I’m sure you guys have cop friends, who will boast to you of who they control, they know all the crooks- in fact they collect protection money from the crooks- so do I need to say more. UMNO AND BN ARE THE CRIMINALS, OR ELSE WHY AREN’T THEY SITTING BEHIND BARS, WITH ALL THE GOVT MACHINARY PROTECTING THEM, SO WHERE IS THE WILL TO PROSECUTE.
mh
July 30, 2009
The brownshirts are already in existence, in actual brownshirts in the last but one election the brownshirts harassed party workers, tore down buntings, flags and posters. Then they stood guard and beat up anyone who they even suspected to be not of their ilk.I know for sure this happened in Putrajaya with the go ahead and funding from a sleazeball, slimebag head honcho.
future Malaysia
July 29, 2009
What a lame brained, idiotic idea to have Rela patrol the streets. Who is dumb ignorant soul who even suggested this?
Rela members will be extorting money or collect money and release criminls.
They should only look after Pasar Tani, Tesco stores, so as not to cause even more trouble for the Rakyat!!!
Yvonne
July 29, 2009
barking mad idea! go to jalan silang or chow kit area on any weekend and see how they behave lah.
donplaypuks
July 29, 2009
RELA berkorban….apa sahaja…..
Seriously, if we are short of cops just upgrade the
police force and hire graduates from all races to rectify the material staff-mix imbalance in PDRM.
RELA personnel are perceived to be of low intellect. RELA is not respected by the people and is seen as a sleazy outfit fleecing illegal immmigrants, foreign workers and maids.
Half measures will produce half results.
dpp
We are all of 1 Race, the Human Race. That is all that really matters.
anonymous
July 29, 2009
Unwittingly, by proposing RELA, Najib is admitting to the failure of PDRM to curb crime.
Admiral Tojo
July 29, 2009
This is a confirmation of the inneffectiveness of our PDRM. No need to increase their numbers, just upgrade their skill levels and professionalism. Get rid of corruption in PDRM starting from the top. All of these actions will assist in increasing the efficiency of the police force.
The performance of the Home Minister is also lacking. He should forget that in the period of being the Home Minister, his service is for the people and not his political party. This skill is almost absent in our current Minister, where his focus has been in enhancing his political parties position as opposed to maintaining the peace and security of the people, the Rakyat, his boss. Thus his myopic view of what hus party members desire as opposed to what the Rakyat wants.
Bollocks to RELA
Shalom
pdrm
July 29, 2009
1. Problem;
CORRUPTION in our police, stop corruption from top to bottom, then you solve problem of entire nation.
2. Solution;
revamp police-IGP to be replaced immediately
revamp MACC-to be independent and reports to parliament
yapsir
July 29, 2009
No way!
That is like from the frying pan into the fire.
From the wolves into the jackers.
They are untrained !
They are R-aja E-ating L-ate A-lready.(Fist the pdrm,then Immigration,next macc then finally)
Mohd
July 29, 2009
Oh! No! Not RELA. This untrained unit are already abusing their little authority. If given more… God please help us!
Warga Emas
July 29, 2009
Kalau RELA tak dapat menghapuskan segala macam crime di Malaysia ni, next kita ambil pula pendatang haram untuk menghapuskan crime. OK Najib?
Dr. Adrian Wong
July 29, 2009
I believe this would be a case of “Harap pagar, pagar makan padi”!
RELA members are infamous for their indiscipline and lack of training. How does that qualify them to act as auxilliary policemen?
Of course, it doesn’t. We can all see that. If Najib actually came up with this foolish plan, then he has a lot less wattage in that dim bulb of his than I expected.
k1
July 29, 2009
If rela can do the job, why need the polis di rojak?
rasa takut
July 29, 2009
I read somewhere that we have 75,000 police personnel. Assuming that we have 27 million people, the police-population ratio is around 360:1.
That is very high when compared to other countries.
London has 14,000, NY has 7,500, Paris has 7,200 and these are metro-cities with more than 10 million people.
There also a UN standard of police-pop ratio of 222:1
All these info are avail. on the net.
Maybe we should look at increasing the efficiency of the Police force? There are hundreds of ways to do that.
We need to do more for less and not the other way round.
Rela should be disbanded. They do not serve any purpose in this day and age.
PM need to re-think his whole idea on how to combat crime.
jambala
July 30, 2009
Do they have so many criminals. Last I know the government has identified about 25 million such rascals!
Mike Martin
July 29, 2009
Heaven preserve us from untrained, undisciplined, bigoted vigilanties!!
Scorpion
July 30, 2009
A state of ANARCHY!
shar101
July 30, 2009
RELA’s involvement in NTR’s crime fighting program is only a facade to hide BN’s true intention.
At a certain point, BN will propose an increase in RELA conscripts to commensurate with the high crime.
Further down the road, the EC will push to drop postal voting in favor of using a biometric system, as if, to promote free and fair elections. But only a pilot project on uniform personnel will be conducted ostensibly targeting GE13.
If we are to include military personnel, BN will then have access to ONE MILLION PLUS ‘secured’ voters.
Note: Mindef have plans to station ‘new’ Territorial Army battalions in each of the parliamentary constituents. Meanwhile, delineation exercises are already in motion therefore we may have more than 222 parliamentary seats by the next GE (imagine having another 10 or 20 mini-Putrajaya enclaves).
In other words, BN is padding up their voter banks coz they can’t rely on newly registered voters to support them.
Can RELA fight crime? Naaah .. they can’t have friendly firefights amongst themselves.
anna brella
July 30, 2009
As nothing ever seems to change for the better on this front over there, as has been the case evidenced so far, how about doing this instead?
Since you’re all going to be tortured and killed off in the end anyway, either by the PRDM, MACC or RELA, maybe the way to go about it is to just resign yourselves to that fact and try to live a rip roaring happy life before that fate eventually befalls you. Like poor Teoh Beng Hock, or that murdered A Kugan or the now killed-off Gunasegaran or those 1,792/xxxx?? mysteriously and unexplained dead others held in custody before them.
Since RELA IMO, cannot, allegedly, be any more incompetent or deadly than the current lot in PRDM or MACC, in terms of protecting your lives that is, BUT are however, definitely staffed by cost-FREE volunteer vigilantes, why not decide to opt to substitute RELA for everyone of those PRDM and MACC paid personnel?
That way the live citizens will make good vacancy or efficiency savings from all those RM$$billions now allocated to be spent by the PRDM and MACC, which savings the citizens can then ask NAR to fairly distribute to them (only the live ones mind you, so that you can get more and more of teh savings cake the longer you live) to use and live it up before that…er….inevitable RELA snuffing-out happens.
Now isn’t that being more constructive and also perhaps a tad bit more realistic? Or am I being somewhat foolishly off course here?
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
oA
July 30, 2009
.
The no.1 idiot is displaying his sense of insecurity.
People in power displaying insecurity is usually one that abuses power. Of course well known dictators through the world are just the same – insecurity that eventually leads them to sensless killing of innocent people.
Those dictators usually have the so called “special” security guards – just like rela.
pdrm is rogue with license to abuse the people and rela is just the opposite – to protect dictator.
.
ReLa??
July 30, 2009
nope…definitely don’t agree.
so many reported cases abt these people misusing their powers…and they are UNTRAINED!!
You don’t need to put a gun in a monkeys hand to find out what it will do…
“KUDOS” to our “beloved” PM.
I actually wondered how many of our ministers actually sat together and came up with this “brainstorm”!!
Anyway,
Kudos to you BRo. Gr8 job.
Keep up the good Job duDe!
Chiao
Sal-a-din
July 30, 2009
Why do so many Chinese join Rela?
Just curious.
tmf
July 30, 2009
Rela should be deployed to combat street crimes and Mat Rempit should be deployed to direct traffic.
Bigjoe
July 30, 2009
Aiyah! Have to tell my pretty and money-savvy Indo maid she cannot go out OR she will be harrassed and extorted again!!!!
johanssm / khun Pana
July 30, 2009
Better to utilize the Rukun Tetangga folks then it is to recruit rela to fight crimes. Since the Rukun Tetangga knows their place well and are known to the residents.
We dont even have to pay the Rukun Tetangga a single cent in allowance.
Rela’s people are only suitable to guard car parks , diverting traffic flow during major festivals and helping out during search and rescue work. such as during floods and searching for missing jungle trekkers.
Rela are most unsuitable as law enforcers.
As they are NOT law enforcers and dont even have the training of a auxiliary police personnel (polis bantuan ).
Moreover , the polis themselves are uncontrollable.
So , whose going to control the relas?
Set up the IPCMC first and then we can discuss about rela’s role .
sss
July 30, 2009
we might add more crap to the national security… we had may cases of misuse of power and RELA has no idea about people need…RELA still good with a chotar and whistle.
You want more girls to be forced to pee in the truck and have their photos taken by RELA?
Tok Cik
July 30, 2009
Rela to the fore? You must be mad. We’ll have problem controlling them later.
Steven O
July 30, 2009
Robert Mugabe have his veteran army personal to do his dirty job so, Najib must have the Rela at his disposal also, otherwise how are to compete with Zimbabwe on a race to the bottomless pit??
Chan ST
July 31, 2009
Put all police on guard duties on the street and the Rela men on guard duties if there are not enough policemen for patrol. See whether the government trust the Rela men to look after their buildings and occupants.
calvin tan
July 31, 2009
the majority of them are criminals themselves and
u expect them to combat crimes.my goodness who is
out of his mind anyway!even some trained policeman
deviate from their duty,what do u expect from the
untrained rela.do something logical my poor government.