The new IGP, formerly Director of the PDRM Special Branch, is apparently shocked that a Sabah political party have decided to bar Special Branch officers from its meetings.

If he is really shocked he is displaying a degree of naivety that must make many wonder if he is suited to head the PDRM, even for two years. In reality it is more likely that he is displaying pique that democratic bodies can and are telling him to keep his narks at home or in the office.

Registered political parties have legal status and if the PDRM, or its Special Branch component, have reason to believe that illegal activities are being carried on under such cover, they know, or ought to know, how to proceed. Of the ways open to them public whining is not one.

Those with the welfare of the PDRM at heart will be dismayed by this public show of naivety on the part of a new IGP who is expected to put on a far better performance in the job than his predecessors.