Home Minister praises cops for keeping the peace

(The Star) PUTRAJAYA: Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein has praised the police for ensuring there was no untoward incident on the streets outside the Perak state assembly yesterday.

Thankful that things did not get out of hand, he said the role of the ministry was to ensure that no one created an unsafe environment for the people.

“The commotion that took place was limited to inside the Dewan and we are used to this, it is a normal thing,” he told reporters after attending a briefing at the Rela headquarters here yesterday.

On the arrests made by police outside the state assembly, Hishammuddin said people had been warned beforehand against gathering at the venue.

He said if the police had failed to do so (take action), they would be answerable to the people and to him.

The people, he said, should not resort to doing things that threatened the country’s stability.

On the ruckus inside the state assembly, he called it a mockery of the democratic process.

Hishammuddin also said the ministry was studying existing laws relating to the police, immigration and prisons as some were archaic and needed to be revie-wed.

On his plans for Rela, he said he wanted more non-Malays in it as it would help promote interaction between the various races.

Currently there are 340,00 Malays, 85,000 Chinese and 26,000 Indians in the movement.