PETALING JAYA: Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng has urged Attorney-General (AG) Idrus Harun to explain why the public is not allowed to record police raids.
Lim was commenting on an incident where four individuals were arrested in a raid on a record shop in Penang on Saturday. Out of the four, three were detained for allegedly recording the ongoing raid on their phones.
“The AG must explain the rationale behind prohibiting the public from recording such raids. In this case, why were the individuals arrested just for recording the incident?”
“Is it not better (to record the raids) so that the authorities do not carry out their operations in a clandestine manner?” he said in a statement.
He added that the manner by which such operations are carried out should be shown to the public on the grounds of transparency.
Lim said if the public were not allowed to record these incidents, then it would be better for the police to have body cameras installed on their uniforms while they carry out their duties.
“The procurement of body cameras was initiated in 2021, it’s already 2023. So, when will the use of body cameras by the police be enforced?” he said.
In December, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail announced that the government had approved an allocation of RM30 million to obtain body cameras for use by policemen on duty.
He said the procurement process was in progress, adding that he hoped it would be expedited as body cameras were now a necessity.
Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported that the police had raided a music event held on the second floor of Ruas Store, a newly-opened record shop in Penang.
Besides the three individuals detained for recording the raid on their phones, a co-owner of the store was held for over 12 hours for not possessing an entertainment licence.
On the trio detained for recording the raid, another Ruas Store co-owner Shaik Fitri said the police told them recording of raids was not allowed and asked them to delete any footage.
They were released an hour after they were detained.
