I will convene a Parliamentary Roundtable in Parliament next Thursday, 27th December 2007 inviting concerned NGOs and NGIs, including the 16 members of the Royal Police Commission, to discuss how to salvage the original proposal of the Royal Police Commission to have an independent external oversight mechanism to check police abuses, misconduct and corruption.
As former Royal Police Commissioner Tunku Abdul Aziz, who was formerly President of Transparency International Malaysia, told the Emergency Public Consultation on the Special Complaints Commission (SCC) Bill – what I had described as the fake IPCMC bill – in Kuala Lumpur on Monday night, there is no police in the world which had been capable of or successful in policing itself, which was why the Royal Police Commission was unanimous in its key proposal for the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).
Although the Cabinet has agreed to defer the second reading of the SCC Bill to the next meeting of Parliament starting on March 17, 2008 (provided there is no earlier dissolution of Parliament for the holding of the 12th general election), there are two matters which are most regrettable, viz:
• the refusal to set up a Parliamentary Select Committee to canvass the widest public consultation on whether the original proposal to have an independent IPCMC should be salvaged and reinstated; and
• the rigid government mind-set in refusing to reconsider the IPCMC proposal, which has been abandoned in favour of a Special Complaints Commission which has the Inspector-General of Police, the Director-General of Anti-Corruption Agency and the Director-General of the Public Complaints Bureau as permanent Commissioners – making total nonsense of a completely independent oversight commission whether over the police or other enforcement agencies.
As there is no Parliamentary Select Committee to canvas the widest public consultation on the fake IPCMC Bill, there is an urgent need to have a substitute body to conduct such a public consultation process in the next two months. This will be the major agenda of the Parliamentary Roundtable on the SCC Bill next Thursday.