YOURSAY 'Zaki, in saying EO has its uses, has shown how deep the cancer of Umno hegemony has seeped into all institutions, including the judiciary.'

Ex-CJ Zaki says EO-like law has its uses

Ourvotesdecide: Very simple. Our present laws allow for the police to arrest and detain the arrested person(s) up to 24 hours without an order from the magistrate if they have reasonable ground or probable cause to believe that the person(s) arrested had committed or is/are about to commit a crime.

If the police require further investigation and needed time to complete their investigation, they may apply to the court which may extend the remand/detention period of the arrested person(s).

So unless our police officers are unprofessional or less intelligent than the criminals, there is no reason why the police investigators (the IOs), backed by the Special Branch, cannot do any real quality investigation to obtain the required evidence to establish the guilt or innocent of the arrested person(s) during their remand period.

Every human beings, including criminals, will leave a footprint or trail. The more or very sophisticated criminals may be able to avoid detection or arrest for a while. But soon enough, a dedicated investigator will surely uncover their track of whatever crime(s) they had committed.

With modern technology which can detect a person's DNA and laws such as the Anti-Money Laundering Act, there is no reason why our police investigators cannot detect, trace and catch the criminals.

Unless of course, our police officers are corrupt and in the pockets of the criminals or are acting as tools of politicians to destroy their political opponents.

Rojak: Whenever we hear of a horrible crime, it is tempting to agree with any draconian measure that might have prevented it from happening.

If you had just been raped and robbed by someone with a known criminal record, you would doubtless feel sympathetic to some kind of arrest-first-gather-evidence-later law.

But if your child had been detained wrongly and at some length, you would feel quite differently. There always has to be a balance between effective crime control and maintaining the liberty of the innocent, but to lean towards the former there must be a much higher level of trust in the integrity and competence of the police than there is today.

Former chief justice Zaki Azmi's claim about never ordering the detention of the wrong person means nothing without evidence of a genuine commitment to raising the level of policing here.

Jesse: Emergency Ordinance (EO), including preventive detention, is a blatant violation of human rights and it has made the police lazy and ineffective in crime prevention. How about improving investigative skills like all civilised countries without preventive detention.

Instead of improving standards, I can't believe an ex-CJ advocating for us to adopt the third world standard. Lack of meritocracy in the system has corrupted even our minds, such that those who hold high office are no longer able to exercise whatever little intellect that they have.

Accepting such low standard of law enforcement leads inevitably to more abuses, incompetence and a descend into a failed state. The citizens are the losers, regardless of race.

Odin: Of course, it is not easy to catch a person and to identify and present evidence before a judge. But it is the work of the police to do that.

If they are incapable and lazy, it is improper to arm them with an all-powerful law. Such a law can be abused, and we have read reports of how the police have not exactly been impartial when it comes to applying these laws.

Furthermore, the police seem to have been giving more emphasis on spying on politicians from the opposition and activists and less on crime investigation. That could be the reason they find it hard to gather evidence that would incriminate criminals.

But one would suppose that when you have received a substantial gift from your benefactor, it is hard to disagree with him even if he is wrong.

Briefly: It's as good as saying that the hundreds of millions of taxpayers monies poured into training of police have all been 'quietly' wasted and what we have today are just 'half baked' law enforcers.

And that a system which abuse the fundamental human rights should be practiced and adopted. What nonsense is that?

Oscar Kilo: "I can safely say, in my heart, I have not recommended detention of any person who is innocent. My conscience is very clear. Only God knows," Zaki said.

The problem is, we are not God, so we don't know your conscience. Besides, how do you know a person is guilty or innocent without a proper trial?

Quigonbond: What do you expect, coming from an Umno judge? A judge should be the guardian of due process and rule of law.

Zaki, in saying EO has its uses, has shown how deep the cancer of Umno hegemony has seeped into all institutions of governance, including the judiciary.

Onyourtoes: What nincompoopism is this? He has just said the whole judiciary should be disbanded.

Zaki has just said there is no need for identification and evidence to convict a person. Just use suspicion, intuition and feeling. Is there a limit to stupidity?

Malaysian Born: This sort of illiterate and stupid comment coming from a former chief justice is really unhelpful given the gravity of the matter.

Who cares if he can swear that he has not abused the power when the fact is that he has to concede the law has been abused.

This nonsense that there is justification for indefinite detention without trial and that leaders and police "promise" not to abuse the power is total horse shit and he knows it.

There have been more than enough cases of the abuse of the law to say clearly that one should never again be allowed. In the case of terrorism, there are adequate laws and there must be judicial review. The nonsense that a minister merely needed to be convinced was abused to a vulgar level.

Our police force is a professional organisation and it needs to use its skills and the existing law to bring criminals to book, just like in all developed countries.

There is nothing retarded or inadequate about Malaysian people or our police force. Enough nonsense, please.

Lone_star: The EO or any preventive law is just great. Great for those who want to put the pesky rakyat away despite the lack of evidence or when they are too lazy or incompetent to gather evidence.

For the rest of us, preventive laws are bad.

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