Govt wants more non-Malay participation in police force

KUALA LUMPUR: The government wants more non-Malays to sign up and join the police force, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.
Zahid, who is also the Home Minister, said while the number of non-Malays in the force was not an issue, he expected more from the group to be part of it.
"We like to urge Malaysian Chinese, Indians and other ethnic groups to join the force with a higher percentage," he said.
"We would like to show the right compositions of all Malaysian in our (police) force," he told a press conference after his work visit at the General Operations Force (PGA) Central Brigade headquarters in Cheras here.
Meanwhile, Zahid said his ministry will work on the upgrading works on any police barracks that are currently in bad condition.
He added the process would be done in stages for all barracks nationwide while adding that this was to ensure the welfare of police officers and family members are taken care of.
Zahid also noted that the current number of barracks were not sufficient to support the overall members of the police.
"We have officers and members of more than 130,000 people but the total number of barracks available are less than 80,000.
"This means that around 50,000 personnel are without accommodation," he said.
Asked whether the government would consider increasing the number of police barracks, Zahid said the focus now was to upgrade and rehabilitate any worn out barracks.
"I understand that we have financial limitations as other agencies would be needing their own allocations," he said.
For a start, Zahid said an RM13 million allocation has been approved for upgrading and rehabilitation works for the 15 barrack blocks at the Cheras PGA.