Prof James Chin
KUCHING (Sept 6): Political analyst Professor James Chin has questioned what Sarawak police have been doing in the tracking and capture of 40-year-old Alladin Lanim, one of the world’s most wanted paedophiles, in Lundu near here.
The expert in Asian studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia opines that it is high time to ponder over the role and functions of the authorities in Malaysia in light of the case, which was highlighted by The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
“Why does it take the Australian police to take this paedophile down? Lundu is such a small place. What were Sarawak police doing?
“You really have to wonder if all the key institutions in Malaysia are falling apart. This comes after the worst paedophile in UK history was caught by the UK police in Kuala Lumpur, doing horrific things to children.
“As usual, nobody in Malaysia wants to talk about it,” he commented in a WhatsApp message.
In a statement, Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Sarawak, Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah, expressed her gratitude to the Australian police and Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) for joining forces, which led to the arrest and the prosecution of Alladin.
“I have been alerted about this paedophile case. I’m grateful that finally he (Alladin) was tracked down, prosecuted and punished for the hideous crime that he had committed.
“Congratulations to the excellent work by Australian Police and PDRM,” she said in her remarks share on a WhatsApp media chat group earlier yesterday.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the capture of Alladin might never have happened if not for the sleuthing of Australian police – specialist investigators from the Australian Federal Police, Queensland Police and the Australian Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac).
It said Alladin had been on the authorities’ radar for two years ever since a multi-national internal police report in 2019 listed his online alias as one of the top 10 offenders in the world in exploitation of children on the Internet.