The announcement by the Bukit Aman management director Mortadza Nazarene that the police will be setting up a special committee headed by the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to curb incidents involving deaths in police lock-ups is totally unsatisfactory and completely unacceptable, as what Malaysians want is an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) as recommended by the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry eight years ago in 2005 to put an end once and for all to the scandalous and endless spate of deaths in police custody.

After demonstrating himself in his first week as the most “political” IGP in history whose first priority is to protect the regime rather than the safety of Malaysians from crime and fear of crime, with scant regard to the human rights of Malaysians to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, Malaysians have no confidence in the IGP or in any police special committee even if it is headed by the IGP to put an end to deaths in police custody.

Khalid had been the Deputy IGP since April 2011 and Malaysians are entitled to know what he had done the past two years as the No. 2 in the police force to put and end to deaths in police custody, a scandalous state of affairs which had been highlighted by the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry way back in 2005?

Even now, despite another two deaths in police lockups – N. Dharmendran, 32, at the KL police headquarters on May 21 and R. Jamesh Ramesh 40 at the Penang police headquarters on May 26 – the police announcement appears to be more of a PR or public relations exercise, as the setting up of the special police committee had not been done but is still in the future tense!

How many deaths in police custody have occurred in the past eight years since the report and recommendations of the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry in 2005?

Is the police prepared to make public a full list of deaths in police custody in the past eight years since the Dzaiddin Police RCI report, stating in each case what action had been taken by the police, including punitive actions against the errant police personnel concerned?

Mortadza talks about the police allowing visits from the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) as a check against incidence of death in police custody.

This is a meaningless gesture when there has not been a single Suhakam Commissioner for more than a month since the expiry of the term of appointment of the last batch of Suhakam Commissioners.

As IGP and Chairman of the special police committee on deaths in police custody, is Khalid prepared to spearhead a campaign for the establishment of IPCMC to provide effective check on all forms of police abuses? If so, Khalid will have the full co-operation of the 89 Pakatan Rakyat MPs.

(Media Statement in Kuching on Tuesday, May 28, 2013)