Deputy directof of the Royal Malaysian Police’s Special Branch, Abdul Hamid Bador, was served with an immediate transfer order to the Prime Minister’s Department, mirroring a similar change of station two weeks ago when two senior MACC officers were ordered to do the same.
Abdul Hamid annouced his transfer orders after a retirement ceremony behind closed doors at Bukit Aman yesterday, where he passed on his duties as SB deputy director to the police’s expert on political extremist threats, Mohd Haniff Harun.
Abdul Hamid professed to not knowing why he was ordered to transfer to the PM’s Department.
“… they just told me to go to JPM, so I go to JPM lah,” he told The Malay Mail Online‘s Yiswaree Palansamy.
“No reason given and I just received the letter yesterday… earlier today, there was a ceremony to hand over my duty.”
He also told Anne Muhammad of Malaysiakini, he said, “With regard to my transfer, you have to ask the IGP (Khalid Abu Bakar), because it was him who confirmed the letter of transfer.”
Asked whether his transfer had anything to do with Prime Minister Najib Razak, he said: “No comment”.
Expressing apparent unease at the sudden directive, Abdul Hamid said he had, in fact, not yet accepted the position at the PM’s Department.
“I haven’t accepted the position. I only resigned from my previous post this morning,” he said.
MMO also reports that Abdul Hamid has also been ordered to go on “long leave” before moving into his new office in JPM. He will begin his new duties – should he accept them – on September 2.
Abdul Hamid is the second senior officer to exit the Special Branch in recent weeks. On the day of PM Najib’s Cabinet reshuffle, July 28, Sepcial Branch director Akhil; Bulat was replaced by Mohamad Fuzi Harun.
