Press Statement by M Kula Segaran, DAP National Vice
Chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat in Ipoh on 25th October, 2014
Call on IGP Tan Sri Khalid to support the
immediate setting up of IPCMC
Despite the continued occurrences of custodial deaths,
the federal government’scontinued refusal to set up the Independent
Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) recommended by the Royal
Commission of Inquiry headed by Tun
Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, is most
disappointing and even irresponsible.
The main excuse given by the government is that the
setting up of the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) is
sufficient.
But time has proven that EAIC has failed to stop more
custodial deaths from happening since it was set up in 2011.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its “ No Answers, No Apology:
Police Abuses and Accountability“ report released in April this
year in Kuala Lumpur revealed
that just 7% of complaints against the police force between 2005 and 2012
reached a courtroom while more than half the cases has yet to be fully
investigated.
From
extrajudicial killings of teenagers to custodial deaths, threats to lawyers and
assaults on journalists covering demonstrations, the report gives chilling and
bloody first-person accounts of police abuse and misconduct.
The report
without a doubt further showed the urgency of setting up an external oversight
body like IPCMC.
But the
government is still adamant in refusing to set up the IPCMC when such oversight
body has been set up in many other countries.
It is no
secret that the Police leadership has always been opposing the setting up of
the IPCMC.
Yesterday, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid
Abu Bakar said that the police were not in favour of the setting up of IPCMC
last year because the terms in the proposal treated the force like second-class
citizens.
He said the
proposal gave members of the force no avenue for justice.
“For instance,
in the proposal, a policeman picked up for corruption does not have the right
to defend himself,” he was quoted as saying.
Was Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar
saying that the police will support IPCMC formation if the required changes are
made?
On June 29
last year, former IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan called on the government to set up
IPCMC after the Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar was ruled responsible for A Kugan’s
death under custody.
In a landmark civil suit,
the High Court had ruled that Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, at that time the
Selangor police chief, was liable to misfeasance in A. Kugan’s death behind
bars in 2009.
“You need monitoring, of
course, on the police,” Musa told The
Malay Mail Online. He also proposed that
changes be made to allow appeal against IPCMC decisions.
What Tan Sri Kahlid Bakar
said yesterday was no different from what Tan Sri Musa said more than a year.
I wonder why it took Khalid
Bakar more than a year to state his position.
Nevertheless, since Tan Sri
Khalid Bakar has stated his position, I call on him to propose the necessary
changes to the government and to express his full support for the immediate
setting up of the long delayed IPCMC.
There need to
be independent investigative body to look into complaints of wrong doings by
the police. By establishing this like IPCMC it will enhance the confidence on
the police and their investigations.
The bottom
line is the police cannot and should not be given the exclusive monopoly of
investigating their own wrongs. The police should not be judge, jury and prosecutor
of complaints and wrong doings against its own personnel.
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