Government must be more convincing in arguing for DNA Bill

Right now, public confidence in the authorities, be it the police, the various government departments or any new department to be set up to deal with DNA collection, remains very low.

There is widespread concern that the authorities are not ready for legislation making it compulsory for criminal suspects to provide DNA samples.


In conversations with ordinary Malaysians and after reading responses on the Internet as well as after listening to public reaction over the 98.8 radio station’s live discussion just this morning, I have found that a majority of the public are not in favour of the DNA Bill.

I reject any suggestion that this Bill is being targeted at Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim because it does not operate retrospectively.

But there is cause for public concern over what kind of safeguards will be introduced by the government in the collection of DNA samples.

Just who will collect these samples? How well will they be trained? How do we know the DNA samples cannot be tainted?

These are some of the questions the people would like to know.

Also, why is the government proposing such wide powers which can be subject to manipulation or abuse.

I am sure the government may have good intentions, but the fact is in today’s political scenario, it must work harder to win the battle of perception.

The general perception is that the authorities are generally considered inefficient, corrupt and incompetent. It is a perception that has wide support.

How is the public expected to have faith in the system?

The government must be more convincing in its arguments for the introduction of the DNA Bill.

We must remember that in a democracy laws are introduced for the benefit of the people.

So the government must explain how the DNA Bill will benefit the public. It must allay concerns.

It must listen to public feedback and possibly tweak the Bill further.

Since the Bill was first mooted as far back as 2001, what is the haste in passing the legislation now?

The government should spend some time publicizing the provisions of the Bill to ensure wider acceptance or to even make sure it is indeed ready to efficiently and impartially administer the collection of DNA.

While I cannot speak for Umno, MIC and other parties in the Barisan Nasional (BN), I find it strange though that none of the senior leaders in the MCA or any of the candidates for the party elections have voiced out their concerns.

It was pointed out by one senior party leader today in The Star that if we are really committed to what we say we should walk the talk.
I am not sure if he was talking about me, but I still believe the very least MCA’s representatives and leaders must do is to voice out public concerns over a myriad of issues such as the DNA Bill.

For now, I do not hold any government or party position. All I can do is to speak out thru the blog. The press will not entertain any statement by me

What I don’t understand is that there are senior leaders and candidates in the MCA who still say nothing at all, and appear to offer no ideas on how to regain public support for the party. People’s private life is more concern to some of them.

Just as the government should do more to convince the people about the DNA Bill, MCA leaders must also do more to convince the public, especially the Chinese, that it still deserves to be supported.