FORMER Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador fired another salvo against Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin today, accusing the latter of trying to misuse the Special Branch to advance his political agenda.
“It’s not only me having issues with Hamzah. Even the Special Branch (SB) is unhappy with the minister’s action for the past one year.
“I was told that the minister had forced the SB to conduct several operations for his own political agenda,” Hamid told news portal, Malaysia Gazette.
However, he did not divulge details on the operations as citing it was classified.
“Suffice to say that the objectives for the said operations were not line with the mandate given to the SB, which is to safeguard and protect national security.”
Yesterday, Hamid told Astro Awani that he would reveal a case where a certain “Datuk Seri” was alleged to have misused the SB to pressure his or her political rivals.
Before retiring, Hamid went on a tirade against Hamzah, claiming the latter was interfering in police matters unnecessarily and blamed him for creating factions within the force.
The former top cop said that he had brought the matter to Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin but no action was taken.
Hamzah himself was caught featured in an audio clip, discussing about promotions and transfer of police personnel.
Muhyiddin threw a spanner in Hamzah’s “works”
While he admitted it was him in the clip, the Larut MP said there was nothing wrong in the conversation, adding it was his prerogative as the Police Force Commission chairman to decide on the matter.
Elaborating on the “political operations”, Hamid said that SB officers were reluctant to entertain Hamzah’s instructions and reported the matter to Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“And the prime minister agreed with SB’s views, angering the minister. However, the latter then worked together with a former senior SB officer, whose contract expired last year.
“With that, Hamzah made his move to ensure his ‘boy’ (the former senior SB officer) heads the SB as the latter is considered friendly to the minister.
“To prove my allegations, on Feb 16, the sitting SB director was summoned by the Home Ministry chief secretary, who told the former to end his contract voluntarily.
“If he refused, the director would be issued a one-month notice of termination,” he claimed.
Hamid added that Hamzah was seen to be relentless in his pursuit to ensure his “boy” gets appointed as SB director, even though the current officer’s contract was still on.
“Subsequently, the matter was brought to Muhyiddin’s attention, who then instructed the sitting director to continue serving,” he remarked.
Datuk Mohamed Farid Abu Hassan is currently serving as the Special Branch director. He was appointed in June 2019. – May 4, 2021.
