KUALA LUMPUR, June 5- The home ministry will study a suggestion on the setting of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to investigate complaints of misconduct of enforcement personnel in the country.
Its deputy minister, Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, said a study was needed to be carried out on the effectiveness of the IPCMC, as compared to other avanues such as the internal police disciplinary board, which had proven to be effective, since it was well-equipped to deal with errant police personnel.
“Some claim the current set-up is better than what was recommended in the IPCMC. I have to look at both first, and we will make a statement later,” he told reporters after visiting the 1Malaysia Cure & Care clinic in Sungai Besi here today.
Wan Junaidi was commenting on Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low’s comment that Malaysia already had a capable Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission to deal with disciplinary matters of the enforcement personnel, and thus, there was no need for the IPCMC.
Last year, the then-minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, in a Dewan Rakyat question-and-answer session, said the government had no plans to set up IPCMC since the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission set up on April 1, last year was sufficient to investigate complaints of misconduct of enforcement personnel in the country.
On March 25, 2008, then-prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced the IPCMC draft bill was ready for presentation to the Cabinet before tabling in Parliament. However, it was deferred as Parliament was dissolved that year to make way for the 12th General Election.
IPCMC was the last part of the police reform mooted by the Special Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Police chaired by former chief justice Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah who suggested the board to be modelled on the United Kingdom’s Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), as well as other police oversight bodies in New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, and Hong Kong.
Wan Junaidi said he had discussed the matter, and also on the internal police panel with Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.
Meanwhile, acting Gerakan president Datuk Chang Ko Youn said the setting up of IPCMC would help boost the morale of the police and improves its image in the eyes of the Malaysian public.
“We cannot ignore the wishes of the rakyat who want a police force that is efficent, transparent and accountable,” he said in a statement here today.
Chang said Malaysia required the IPCMC after many cases of missteps and wrongful acts involving the police, such as deaths in custody and trigger-happy personnel on the ground.
MCA has meanwhile, called on the inspector-general of police to set up an inquest into the three custodial deaths in police lock-ups in a spate of 11 days.
Its publicity bureau chairman, Datuk Heng Seai Kie, said in a statement here today that there should be no cover-up in the investigation as justice and the truth were owed to the victims and their families.
She said Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s order for the transfer of the four policemen suspected to be involved in N. Dhamendran’s death, was simply insufficient.
It was a slap to the family and justice, and that would only exacerbate public perception of a police cover up, she noted.
A Kuala Lumpur Hospital forensic pathologist’s report showed that Dhamendran’s death was due to severe blunt force trauma.
Heng said: “Immediate and severe action must be taken against the culprits. We must put an end to such misconduct allegedly committed by the very authorities whom the public place their trust in upholding the law.
“Otherwise, confidence in the Royal Malaysian Police as implementers of the law will erode.”
– BERNAMA
