AKPS needs 13,721 posts for optimum strength, still lacks 5,726 for full operations: DG
PUTRAJAYA: The Home Ministry’s newest border agency already has the powers. What it is still building is the muscle to use them.
For the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency (AKPS), the challenge now is turning a young agency into a disciplined border force with real field reach.
Director-General Datuk Seri Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said the agency must now turn authority on paper into field strength as it enters its own service structure from July 1.
Racing towards the July clock
The manpower gap now sits at the centre of AKPS’ overall build-up as the agency prepares to enter its own service structure from July 1.
Shuhaily said AKPS needs 13,721 posts to operate at optimum strength, with Phase 1 of its operations involving 6,883 posts, including 103 at headquarters.
Another 1,112 reallocation posts are currently being sorted under Phase 2, leaving AKPS still short of 5,726 posts from its full operational requirement.
“Come July 1, with the numbers we have, obviously we are short of manpower. Whatever has been extended to us by the main agencies must be continued.
“If these agencies pull their men, everything will collapse,” he told theSun at the AKPS headquarters in the Setia Perkasa complex.
Shuhaily said the July 1 scheme is meant to move AKPS away from previous border units that depended on borrowed officers.
The scheme will absorb officers who opt in from existing enforcement agencies, giving AKPS its own workforce instead of relying on secondments.
Separately, AKPS was allocated 640 posts for the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link, with 478 recruits expected to report on June 22 for about three months’ training before RTS trial operations in October.
The RTS Link, connecting Bukit Chagar and Woodlands North, is expected to handle up to 10,000 passengers per hour in each direction once operational.
Northern field readiness and intelligence gap
Up north where operations are no longer theoretical, AKPS’s build-up is already being tested on the ground.
Recalling the Feb 25 Bukit Kayu Hitam shooting involving the border’s AKPS commander SAC Mohd Nasaruddin Mohd Nasir, Shuhaily said it had shaped the agency’s preparations in the region, including plans to equip personnel based on operational risk.
He said firearms would not be issued across the board, with AKPS instead looking at a limited, risk-based approach involving pistols and some rifles only in critical areas.
But for the no-nonsense law enforcement veteran, field readiness could not stop at firearms.
“For AKPS, we do not have people that gather intelligence and do investigations. We have people who just do daily physical inspections.
“So it depends on what we find and what we do not find. It needs to be digested. This is where the commander’s role comes into play.”
Shuhaily said this was why high-risk checkpoints should be led by police officers with investigative thinking that binds both inspection and analytical skills.
“How many people passed? What did you find? What was the modus operandi? What time did it come? Those kinds of things allow you to profile an area and profile activities,” Shuhaily said.
He stressed that AKPS currently controls only two out of eight checkpoints in the northern border context, limiting its ability to give a full picture of checkpoint effectiveness there. The remaining checkpoints are currently under the purview of the Immigration Department.
Training beyond counter checks
Shuhaily also aims to change the work culture of future AKPS officers, preferring personnel capable of handling border movement activities as a singular process, instead of intra-agency involvement.
His aim is for future AKPS officers to be exposed to immigration, customs, Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services (Maqis) and other border function processes.
“AKPS officers must know Customs work. They must know Immigration work. They must know Maqis and quarantine-related work. They must know everything.”
Shuhaily said AKPS has identified Segamat Pulapol as the proposed training facility for its first recruit batch, with recruits expected to report there on June 22 if approval is granted by the inspector-general of police.
The real test for AKPS comes after July 1: whether a new service structure can produce officers who make the border work as one force, not separate counters under one roof.
