Archive for category Police
Panacea to reduce crime?
Posted by Kit in Crime, Law & Order, Najib Razak, Police on Tuesday, 9 July 2013
— Lim Sue Goan
The Malay Mail Online
July 08, 2013
JULY 8 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak made a legal reform pledge on the eve of the Malaysia Day in 2011, which was indeed a sign of democratic progress. However, the legal reforms have been questioned. Would the government backtrack?
Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi refuses to support the abolition of the 1969 Sedition Act. At the same time, Home Ministry and the police blame the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) for causing the deterioration of public security and thus, the government is developing a special preventive law similar to the EO.
It was a right move for Najib to announce the abolition and amendments for some draconian laws, as these undemocratic laws had violated human rights and fundamental freedom. They were also accused to have been used against dissidents.
For example, student activist Adam Adli Abdul Halim; Tamrin Ghafar, son of late former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Ghafar Baba; Anything But Umno (ABU) leader Haris Ibrahim and three others were charged with sedition in May. Also, six Socialist Party leaders were detained under the EO.
In fact, as early as in 2005, the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) Report had proposed the abolition of the EO as the Act was “outdated and might become a tool to infringe fundamental freedom”. The EO allowed for 60 days’ detention without warrant or trial, depriving detainee’s right to seek legal defence. Therefore, the announcement to abolish the Sedition Act and the EC was in line with public opinion. The authorities should not resurrect the laws, regardless of whatever excuses. Read the rest of this entry »
IGP and Home Minister cannot blow hot and cold but must be consistent whether Malaysia is safe country or not
The Inspector-General of Police and the Home Minister cannot blow hot and cold but must be consistent whether Malaysia is a safe country or not.
The IGP and the Home Minister cannot on the one hand claim that Malaysia is a safe country with crime rate decreasing by 26.8% since the launch of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) in 2009, and ranked the safest and most peaceful country in South-East Asia according to the Global Peace Index, but suddenly attribute the recent spike of violent crimes to the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) in 2011 which put nearly 2,000 suspected hardened criminals back on the streets.
If the release of the 2,000 suspected hardened criminals under EO in September 2011 was responsible for the spike in crimes, why is this not shown in the crime statistics of the police, which instead claimed that there had been a reduction of overall street crime and index crime by 41.3% and 7.6% respectively in 2012 as compared to 2011?
Or did the leaders of the violent and organised crime syndicates only suddenly become active after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s declaration of “war against crime” a month after the 13th general elections – causing a worsening of crime and the fear of crime when for the first time Malaysians feel unsafe eating out with the public spate of armed robberies of owners and customers at mamak stalls and restaurants? Read the rest of this entry »
No Red Bean Army ‘command centre’ seen in DAP visit
By Jarni Blakkarly | 11:46AM Jul 4, 2013
Malaysiakini
A visit last night to the so-called command centre of the ‘Red Bean Army’ of cybertroopers that Malay daily Utusan Malaysia said are paid at least RM100 million to work for the DAP showed no evidence of such a centre in operation.
The 10pm visit to the centre at a four-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur was organised by DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang, who wanted to put to rest the allegation against the party.
Lim led a team of party leaders and members of the media to the hotel in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and straight away went to the hotel’s restaurant to hold a press conference to rebut the claim made by the Umno-owned daily.
Soon after May 5 general election, BN leaders and Utusan claimed that DAP had spent between RM100 million and RM1 billion to fund a Red Bean Army of cybertroopers to attack the BN and the government in cyberspace, and named Concorde Hotel as one of its bases.
Among the DAP leaders present last night were vice-president and Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, national publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua and treasurer and Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Loon.
Read the rest of this entry »
If I were the police chief…
Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi
Malaysiakini
Jul 2, 2013
COMMENT Perhaps now that a minister’s house and the house of several ministers’ relatives have been broken into, the leaders should now know how ineffective our police force has become in relation to crime and public welfare.
I would not like to mince words but speak directly on what the police should do … if they are interested in public welfare at all. Even if they are not, they, police personnel are also subject to these crimes when they live outside quarters – such as those where I myself grew up.
So, if I were the chief of police, these are the things I would do.
Firstly, I would recognise that the first line of defence against crime is not to increase the number of police personnel, CCTVs or gated communities, or to deport all migrant workers.
The most tried of defences is the knowledge of crime patterns. If the people know how many crimes were committed and these are analysed, then it is extremely easy to protect against such incidents. I will elaborate in due course.
Secondly, I would tell my personnel to get ‘down and dirty’ with the communities they serve. They should not just drive or ride around and then stop for roti canai or nasi lemak, but should interact more with the communities they are supposed to serve. How? Well …patience dear readers and read on. Read the rest of this entry »
How Can We Have Faith in the IGP?
Posted by Kit in Kee Thuan Chye, Police on Monday, 1 July 2013
By Kee Thuan Chye
July 1, 2013
In street parlance, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) is in deep shit.
Khalid Abu Bakar has been singled out by the judge who gave his verdict on the civil suit brought by A. Kugan’s family against him, the police force and the Government as having not told the truth about how Kugan died while in police custody four years ago.
Khalid was then Selangor police chief. In his first statement to the media at the time, he said Kugan collapsed and died after drinking water. In a subsequent statement, he said Kugan died of water in the lungs.
When an independent post-mortem initiated by human rights lawyer N. Surendran found that Kugan had suffered 45 external injuries and a wide range of internal injuries due to severe beatings, leading to his death from acute renal failure, Khalid did not clarify why its findings contradicted glaringly what he had said to the media.
Senior federal counsel Azizan Md Arshad, in the civil suit hearing, agreed with the judge that Khalid should have held a press conference to clarify the matter. “Only God knows (why this was not done),” Azizan is reported to have also said.
Indeed. There is a world of difference between dying of injuries sustained from being beaten and dying of water in the lungs. Read the rest of this entry »
Will Najib act against Home Minister and IGP? Malaysia hit by a second national haze emergency of accountability, integrity and good governance revolving around two top security officials, IGP and Home Minister
Even before the haze from the Riau and Sumatra peat fires, which have caused state of emergency to be declared and thousands of schools to be closed in various states, have been fully resolved, Malaysia has been hit by a new haze emergency – the haze of accountability, integrity and good governance revolving around two top security officials, the Inspector-General of Police and the Home Minister.
Who would have thought that in matter of 48 hours, it was possible to reduce to smithereens the credibility and authority of the country’s two topmost security officials, the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
On Wednesday, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge, Justice Datuk V.T. Singham (who turned 65 today and went on optional retirement a year before his term is up), found Khalid who was Selangor police chief at the time responsible in the death of suspected car thief A Kugan during police custody from grievous injuries at the Taipan police station on Jan 20, 2009.
In a landmark ruling which saw the family of Kugan winning RM801,700 in damages, Justice Singham found the police and the Government liable for Kugan’s death and said Khalid was liable for misfeasance of public office.
Read the rest of this entry »
How do we proceed from here?
– The Malaysian Insider
Jun 27, 2013
If Malaysians are to have respect for the country’s institutions, they must have respect for the men and women who staff these institutions. The minute we harbour doubts about the character and integrity of an individual leading an organisation, it only stands to reason that our view of that organisation will be down in the dumps as well.
This premise holds true for the police and the Election Commission.
Yesterday the standing of Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar’s took a big hit. He was accused by Justice Datuk VT Singham of malfeasance in the death in police custody of A. Kugan.
He was the Selangor Chief Police when there was a cover-up to hide the fact that police personnel beat the suspect to death. It is no wonder that there are calls for his resignation.
We should expect nothing less than integrity, honesty and a great respect for the rule of law from any policeman. These are minimum standards. How much more should we expect from the IGP? Read the rest of this entry »
Husam’s two-day remand must be condemned by all right-thinking Malaysians as it constitutes a gross abuse of power
Posted by Kit in Crime, Law & Order, PAS, Police on Sunday, 23 June 2013
The two-day remand of PAS Vice President Husam Musa by the police on grounds of investigations under Section 4 of the Sedition Act 1948 must be condemned by all right-thinking Malaysians as its constitutes a gross abuse of power and proof that nothing has changed as far as “transformation” to restore the independence, impartiality and professionalism of national institutions is concerned.
Malaysians are asking why the police have not even questioned, let alone remanded, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who had been guilty of making a series of seditious statements before, during and after the 13th General Elections, utterly reckless of the damage he was doing to inter-racial harmony with his racist lies and falsehoods.
Similarly, Malaysians also want to know why the former Court of Appeal judge, Mohd Noor Abdullah had not been questioned, let alone remanded in a police lock-up, for making the most racist and seditious speech in the country in the past four decades when he warned that the Chinese Malaysians must be prepared for a backlash from the Malay community for their “betrayal” in the recently concluded 13th general election.
With Husam’s two-day remand, Malaysians are being told that the days of selective prosecution, discriminatory treatment and abuses of power by those in authority continues to be the order of the day. Read the rest of this entry »
Bring the army to a rally? Let’s dial it down, shall we?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Human Rights, Police on Friday, 21 June 2013
– Lionel Morais
Managing Editor
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 21, 2013
Federal Internal Security and Public Order director Datuk Saleh Mat Rasid hit a raw nerve yesterday when he said that the army will help the police, if necessary, at the Black 505 rally tomorrow.
He was roundly criticised and rightly so.
Use the army against unarmed Malaysians at a rally? Unbelievable!
These are just people fighting for what they believe is right. They are not the Sulu terrorists and this is not Ops Daulat II.
So what exactly is it that anybody thinks the police cannot handle?
There have been about a dozen protest rallies since the May 5 polls and not one turned violent or chaotic. Read the rest of this entry »
Whether IPCMC or EAIC matters as IPCMC was proposed to deal specifically to end police custodial deaths while EAIC was established to neuter the IPCMC proposal and to avoid police accountability
The Najib government seems to be making a plausible case when its new media spokesman, the Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, says that when it comes to custodial deaths and abuses of power, what is important is “stern action” and not which agency – whether IPCMC or EAIC.
He said the rakyat want “stern action”, whether from an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) or whatever agency.
He stressed that a strengthened Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC), if it could conduct speedy and thorough investigations into custodial deaths and abuse of power, would do just as well.
Khairy’s glib and slick defence of the government’s preference for EAIC instead of IPCMC would be plausible if the scourge of police custody deaths is a new one and not a problem of over a decade, or the government is a new one and not one where the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has entered into his fifth year of premiership!
Or is Khairy admitting that for the past four years, despite the Prime Minister’s boasts of a very successful Government Transformation Programme (GTP), Najib and his Home Minister for the period, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, had failed miserably in addressing and resolving the issue of police custodial deaths?
Neither Khairy or any government spokesman can deny or ignore the fact that the IPCMC was proposed specifically by Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry in 2005 to end the outrage of high police custodial deaths while the EAIC was established specifically to neuter the IPCMC proposal and to avoid meaningful police transparency and accountability.
Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s denial syndrome claiming that he only lost in the “war of perception” in 13GE will condemn his “national reconciliation” plan to failure and a recipe for the resounding defeat of UMNO/BN in the 14GE
The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s denial syndrome in his luncheon talk to Malaysian students in Indonesia at the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta yesterday that the Barisan Nasional had won the GE13 but it lost in the “war of perception” will condemn his “national reconciliation” plan to failure and a recipe for the resounding defeat of UMNO/BN in the 14GE.
Najib said Barisan had carried out many transformations in terms of delivery over the last four years and had validly won the GE 13, but it lost in the war of perception because of the slander and lies churned out by the Opposition through the alternative media, which many people believed in more than the truth provided by the mainstream media.
Najib said: “For the next general election, Barisan must equip itself well to fight the war of perception”.
Is Najib promising more Umno/BN lies and falsehoods on the cyberspace in the next five years, despite the abject failure of the 10,000 UMNO/BN cybertroopers trained in a series of nation-wide 1Malaysia Social Media Conventions involving hundreds of millions of ringgit of public funds in the run up to the 13GE?
I am no apologist for the alternative media, but is Najib prepared to establish an independent commission of inquiry to ascertain why the mainstream media have lost all credibility and authority ceding the ground to the alternative media?
Read the rest of this entry »
Call on Najib to put his War on Crime as top Cabinet agenda on Wednesday to ensure the police are not totally helpless in the latest rampage by criminals, including new-fangled mass armed robbery of owners/customers of restaurants and eateries
Posted by Kit in Crime, Najib Razak, Police on Sunday, 16 June 2013
The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak declared a “War against Crime” when he launched Pemandu’s United Against Crime Day at the KLCC Park in Kuala Lumpur the previous Saturday on 8th June, but it has turned into a nightmarish week for Malaysians with criminals going on a rampage including the new-fangled mass armed robbery of owners and customers of restaurants and eateries.
The headlines given by the BN-owned/controlled media, like “Criminals beware: Its War” and “All-out fight against crime” (Sunday Star 9.6.2013) turned into ashes when it was the criminals who declared war last weekend starting with a group of about 10 parang-wielding men in crash helmets who held up the owner and several customers who were having early-morning supper at Simmei Seafood and Steamboat restaurant at Taman Taynton View in Cheras and got away with RM20,000 in cash and valuables.
This new criminal phenomenon has been repeated in the past week with similar crimes of mass armed gang robberies of customers and owners at open restaurants and eateries in Kepong, Cheras, Kajang and Petaling Jaya, transmitting a new fear of crime throughout the country that it is not safe in Malaysia to be eating out at restaurants and eateries!
The following comment last night on my blog in response to my statement “Police should not be super-efficient to arrest peaceful Malaysians, including women and child while utterly helpless at worsening crime situation with new fear among Malaysians – not safe eating out in restaurants and public eateries” reflected both the severity and gravity of this scourge: Read the rest of this entry »
Police should not be super-efficient to arrest peaceful Malaysians, including women and child while utterly helpless at worsening crime situation with new fear among Malaysians – not safe eating out in restaurants and public eateries
The police arrest of 16 participants of the peaceful Black 505 flashmob at the Sogo shopping centre vicinity in Kuala Lumpur, including women and one child, has raised many questions about the role of the police in ensuring public peace and order as well as upholding human rights which are not complimentary to the police force.
The first question is whether it is not possible for the police to ensure public peace and order as well as uphold human rights without having to arrest the 16 people, including women and a child – bearing in mind Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s boast of wanting to make Malaysia the world’s best democracy?
The second question is whether the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is now cracking the whip in the Barisan Nasional government as it is only yesterday that he urged the government to be “tough and not to give face” to the Opposition which he alleged to “continue to insult the nation’s democratic system”?
Last Saturday, Najib launched a highly-publicised war against crime, and the most powerful critique is not that it came four years too late, resulting in crime becoming the number one worry among Malaysians, exceeding their concern about bread-and-butter issues, but that it marked a new fear of crime among Malaysians.
This is the mass armed gang robbery of shop owners and customers at restaurants and eateries, starting with an open air steamboat restaurant in Cheras by a group of 10 persons armed with parangs and iron rods who robbed more than RM20,000 from the owner and patrons, which has been followed up by a spate of similar crimes of mass armed gang robberies at open restaurants in Kepong, Cheras, Kajang and Petaling Jaya in the past few nights.
Crime in Malaysia seems to have reached a level where criminals are not afraid of the police anymore. Read the rest of this entry »
MACC should explain why no disciplinary action taken against Mohd Nadzri when Teoh Beng Hock RCI Report made adverse comments about Nadzri’s role in Beng Hock’s mysterious death
Posted by Kit in Crime, Police, Teoh Beng Hock on Friday, 14 June 2013
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has urged the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) to remove Mohd Nadzri Ibrahim, its sole investigator, from investigating death-in-custody cases.
This is MACC’s response to the query by two DAP MPs, Zairil Khir Johari (Bukit Bendera) and Steven Sim Chee Keong (Bukit Mertajam) whether EAIC’s integrity would be in doubt if Mohd Nadzri was the MACC officer who was part of the MACC probe causing the mysterious death of DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock at Selangor MACC headquarters in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009.
A MACC statement issued late last night said:
“SPRM does not want any SPRM officers linked to any controversies, whether it involves SPRM itself or the EAIC.
“In this matter, SPRM wishes to stress that Mohd Nadzri Ibrahim, an SPRM officer who was seconded to the EAIC since more than a year ago, is an officer who has always conducted his duties professionally.
“Like SPRM, SPRM is confident that the EAIC, which is an independent commission, would also want to ensure justice for all parties involved in the issue of deaths in custody.”
This is meaningless bureaucratic gobbledygook designed to confuse rather than to illuminate the public, just because the government agency concerned has got embarrassing things to hide from the people.
Read the rest of this entry »
We need our police to be human again
— May Chee
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 13, 2013
JUNE 13 — Ours is supposed to be the time of humanism, yet many have died in custody. Some went for supper, their last. They never made it home. God must have cried an ocean when He saw the police stapling Dharmendran’s ears. How could one creation of His torture another, just as precious in His eyes?
Would anyone dare to surrender himself to the police now, for whatever reason? Would anyone dare to walk into a police station now, for whatever reason? I’d think twice!
It isn’t bad enough that we cannot trust them to arrest the alarming crime rate in the nation. Precious lives are now lost in their hands. That, too, after being tortured! How can this be? What kind of people are being enlisted into the PDRM? What does it take to be a policeman, here in Malaysia? Read the rest of this entry »
What Malaysians want is not an empty “declaration of war against crime”, the most “political” IGP and most “political” Home Minister, but a new and serious culture of “zero tolerance to crime” at all levels of government
The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak declared a war on crime three days ago, late by four years and a resounding vindication of the verdict of the 13GE on May 5 expressing grave voter dissatisfaction and displeasure at the failure of the four-year Najib premiership to deal with the problem of crime and the fear of crime.
It is no use the Barisan Nasional and police leadership claiming that the crime rate has been coming down under the Government Transformation Programme when over the past four years the spectre of the fear of crime have been hounding and haunting Malaysians.
There is no public confidence in the police statistics about crime reduction so long as Malaysians avoid lodging police reports even though they are victims of crime because of the hassle as well as the futility of lodging police reports.
As a result, contrary of police statistics, Malaysians are convinced that the crime rate and the fear of crime have been increasing by leaps and bounds in the past few years.
Najib’s declaration of war against crime suffered bodily blows by recent blatant and flagrant incidence of crime. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s ‘Berlin Wall’
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Mariam Mokhtar, Police on Tuesday, 11 June 2013
by Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Jun 10, 2013
Dataran Merdeka is symbolic. It is our metaphorical Berlin Wall and its significance cannot be exaggerated.
Umno Baru leaders and the police have refused to allow the use of Dataran Merdeka for the ‘Black 505’ rally in Kuala Lumpur on June 15.
Etched in the memories of older Malaysians is the lowering of the Union Jack and the raising of the Malayan flag at midnight, at the Selangor Club padang as Dataran Merdeka was then known. The younger generation would have learnt about its historical role.
When the 154.5km Berlin Wall – a concrete structure built by the East Germans to divide the east from the west – came down, the city of Berlin was reunited, communist rule in eastern Europe fell and the process of re-unification of East and West Germany started.
If the opposition coalition were to hold this rally at Dataran Merdeka, it would score a great moral victory, just as Bersih did. The violence during the Bersih 3.0 rally was perpetrated by the police. A weak regime is one which does not know how to use arguments and discussion as weapons, but resorts to violence.
If the place that is connected with Merdeka and the Tunku were to become the focal point for the ‘Black 505’ rally, attention would be focused on the reasons for the rally, and Umno-Baru would be forever linked with cheating in elections. Umno-Baru is desperate to deny the opposition the publicity. Read the rest of this entry »
Tugas pertama Zahid, KPN baru tangkap
Subky Abdul Latif
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 05, 2013
5 JUN ― Seorang menteri baru dan mana-mana pemegang jawatan baru diperhatikan akan tindakan pertamanya mengambil jawatan.
Tunku Abdul Rahan Putra semasa menjadi Ketua Menteri Tanah Melayu tahun 1955 tindakan pertamanya memperkenalkan undang-undang pengayuh basikal tidak boleh berpayung.
Tindakan pertama Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad mula jadi Perdana Menteri membebaskan tahanan ISA yang ditangkap Tun Hussein Onn seperti Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad Kok Lanas. Lama kemudian baru dia tangkap orang. Ramai!
Tun Abdullah Badawi pula tindakan pertamanya jadi Menteri Dalam Negara, menyekat Harakah dari dua kali seminggu kepada dua kali sebulan.
Kerja pertama Datuk Seri Najib Razak jadi Perdana Menteri, membenarkan semula Harakah terbit dua kali seminggu. Dia tidak kisah juallah Harakah di mana-mana dan kepada sesiapa.
Mari Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi jadi Menteri Dalam Negara dan Ketua Polisnya yang baru, langkah sulung kedua-duanya tangkap pembangkang dan rampas Harakah, KeADILan dan Roket.
Sama ada kedua-duanya berpakat atau tidak, tetapi mereka memulakan kerja dengan menangkap orang yang pada mereka ada salahnya. Empat tahun Najib jadi Perdana Menteri dengan dua KPN, Tan Sri Musa Hasan dan Tan Sri Ismail Omar, tidak dipedulikannya kepada siapa Harakah dijual dan diedar. Tak perasan dia ada menangkap pembangkang.
Tak sampai sepuluh hari Zahid jadi Menteri Dalam Negeri, kurang seminggu dia ada KPN baru, ditangkapnya tiga aktivis pembangkang termasuk Tamrin Ghafar dan Tian Chua atas nama undang-undang. Ketika sama mereka rampas Harakah dan lain-lain kerana langgar undang-undang. Read the rest of this entry »
Do we really need the IPCMC?
― Nicholas Chan
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 05, 2013
JUNE 5 ― The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) recently rose to infamy due to the occurrence of a slew of death in custody cases in Malaysia, once again rallying public outcry for the setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC). Minister in charge of Integrity and Corruption Paul Low was quick to tout the EAIC as if it were the IPCMC we never had, reportedly saying we don’t need another independent police oversight body because the EAIC is actually the IPCMC.
This is a gross mistruth as the powers of the EAIC and the IPCMC as mooted by the Royal Commission chaired by former Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah are different. The truth is, the EAIC is more of a watered down version of the IPCMC, a “reform” legacy that is kindly attributed to the retired Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, although by the time the legislation that enables the Commission to be form is gazetted, he had already stepped down.
No doubt both Commissions are mooted for the same vision of curbing police misconduct and upholding their accountability towards the public, Dzaiddin’s version of it speaks more drastically of the need to keep our police force in check as the Royal Commission report had described the force as “brutal, inept and the most corrupt among the government departments”. Read the rest of this entry »
Will the Cabinet today decide or dilly-dally on IPCMC?
Posted by Kit in Crime, Parliament, Police on Wednesday, 5 June 2013
All eyes are on the Cabinet this morning – will the Cabinet decide or dilly-dally on the issue of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC)?
The issue of IPCMC was first proposed by the Dzaiddin Royal Royal Police Commission eight years ago in 2005 as the most important of its 125 recommendations to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class police force, with even the Prime Minister at the time, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi publicly pledging to implement the IPCMC recommendation.
It was the then UMNO Youth leader, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein, who later became Home Minister, who led the opposition to the establishment of the IPCMC, teaming up with the then police leadership to force Abdullah to backtrack and finally scuttle the IPCMC proposal. Instead an ineffective Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) was substituted.
Did the new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi, who was a Deputy Minister in the first Abdullah administration 2004-2008, support or oppose the IPCMC at the time.
The IPCMC was one effective proposal to address the high rate of deaths in police custody, with 80 cases from January 2000 to December 2004, or an annual average of 16 deaths in police custody in those five years – which was regarded as unacceptably high.
Unfortunately, the scandal of deaths in police custody have worsened after the Dzaiddin Report. The rate of deaths in police custody has increased albeit slightly in the eight and a half years since the IPCMC Report – with 141 deaths from January 2005 to May 2013 (with three deaths in just 11 days in the first month after the 13th general elections on May 5) or a higher annual average of 16.6 deaths since the Dzaiddin RCI report. Read the rest of this entry »
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