PUTRAJAYA: Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said yesterday that the position of the inspector-general of police (IGP) must be respected as the person appointed to the role acts as an institution and not an individual.

“The question of threatening any public office should be avoided, because the person appointed is carrying out their responsibilities,” he told a press conference, referring to a report that a group called Anak Malaysia Anti-Demokrasi had threatened to kill Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar by blowing up his car.

“In this case, the IGP is not a person, he is an institution. Please respect the institution. His main responsibility is to make sure that the element of security is secured in the public interest.

“His position has to be respected. Any statement issued by him is not his personal statement, it is a statement issued by an institution. This must be respected,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid’s statement comes in the wake of a threat against the police chief that was made in a YouTube clip dated Feb 23. In the clip, a person whose face was blocked by the group’s logo and who was flanked by two other masked persons read out the threat in Malay.

The narrator, whose voice was digitally altered, asked whether Malaysians could replace the Election Commission chief, chief justice and IGP through democratic means.

Answering “No”, he labelled the trio “agents that derail democracy” before announcing that the group would kill the IGP by blowing up his car.

On Wednesday, Khalid said in a statement that he is not scared or intimidated by death threats, as it is part and parcel of being the country’s top policeman.

“Such threats do not scare me as the police chief to carry out the tasks entrusted to me. Such threats are common in the life of a police officer in performing his duties,” he said.

Khalid said the police are working with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to track down those responsible for posting the death threat on YouTube.

“Following several clips that were aired on the social website of a group who introduced themselves as Anak Malaysia Anti-Demokrasi recently, I consider it an irresponsible act by the group concerned, aimed at giving a negative picture of the parliamentary democracy in the country.

“This shows that the group does not know the actual meaning of the democratic system which has been practised in the country for so long, and they are threatening to kill me,” Khalid said. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 27, 2015.