Posted on by Kit

AG’s draft IPCMC bill – make it public for feedback and consultation

The second draft Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill which has been prepared by the Attorney-General’s Chambers should be made public to allow for public feedback and consultation.

The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan, has said that the police is satisfied with the draft IPCMC bill prepared by the Attorney-General’s Chambers as it contained some of the proposals presented by the police.

He said the police is not opposed to an IPCMC but wanted a fair procedure so that there is no victimization of the police.

Malaysians welcome the change-of-heart of the police on the IPCMC issue, backing down from its original stand of total opposition.

Malaysians can accept and agree with Musa that when the IPCMC is formed, no one, including the police, should be victimized by its operation and function.

As the whole purpose of an IPCMC is to uphold justice, it would be a travesty of justice to create new victims or to countenance new injustices to be perpetrated under the IPCMC regime.

The real stand of the police on the IPCMC still await full clarification, as the test of the pudding is in the eating or in the passage of the IPCMC legislation.

As the Attorney-General’s draft IPCMC bill has not been made public, no one knows whether it has kept to the spirit of the key recommendation of the Police Royal Commission for the establishment of an independent external oversight mechanism to check police abuses of powers, misconduct and negligence in order to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service which could keep crime low, eradicate corruption in the police service and uphold human rights.

No one knows how far the second draft IPCMC bill prepared by the Attorney-General differed from the first draft Bill prepared and published by the Police Royal Commission.

What is important is that the essence of the recommendation to have an independent external oversight mechanism to effectively check on police abuses should not be compromised in any manner.

There are two reasons why there should be a greater sense of urgency on the part of the government and the police to get the IPCMC established without any more procrastination, viz:

  • it is more than a year since the expiry of the time-line for the establishment of the IPCMC as recommended by the Police Royal Commission — which was by May 2006; and
  • public confidence in the ability of the police to perform its most elementary duty to protect citizens from crime is even lower than before the establishment of the Police Royal Commission as a result of the galloping crime index with Malaysians feeling more unsafe about their personal safety and that of their loved ones as compared to some four years ago.

16 Replies to “AG’s draft IPCMC bill – make it public for feedback and consultation”

  5. In other words, the Police says this version is OK for them. They appear to have got what they want but what about other interested parties, stakeholders?

    Yes, the public must be invited to give their comments. The proposed law must not be allowed to be bulldozed through the compliant parliament.

    Remember the passing of the recent laws for the trade unions and for employee protection. Despite objections, the amendments were forced through the process with contempt. So much for a “caring” government.

  6. All just sandiwara to bluff us rakyat into voting for them la. DOnt expect IPCMC to come into force. There will always be hiccup esp with our ISM. HAs our ISM looked into Ezam’s 600page documents?

  7. Absolutely right. Whatever they say now is purely for election purposes, and then it all goes into a black hole immediately after the elections.

    Zainuddeen Maideen is right – most of the voters in the kampungs have little or no intellect to discern this sort of trickery. Only the bloggers have the intellect.

  8. Here, hidden in the budget 2008 is this item. They are taking NEP to a new level: Not just equity, now employment and vendors must meet NEP guidelines. Better not to seek public listing. How about foreign companies like Sino Huaan where thr entire business is in China?
    Beginning financial year 2008, public listed companies will be required to disclose their employment composition by race and gender, as well as programmes undertaken to develop domestic and Bumiputera vendors.

  9. IGP said:

    “… the police is not opposed to an IPCMC but wanted a fair procedure so that there is no victimization of the police.”

    Why is the IGP so presumptous that the police will be victimised if there is a IPCMC? Is it becuase he has a guilty concience that the police has been going round victimising the public and he now fears a backlash with a IPCMC?

    At the end of the day, it is not so much a IPCMC but its implementation that counts. Obviously the draft release was timed for the GE to prevent the Opposition from making it an election issue. It will remain a draft up to the GE and used as a rebuttal to the Opposition if this was brought up. As soon as the GE is over, the draft will be conveniently forgotten. Its implementation will not see the light of day.

  10. Budget speech finished. As usual every year, now everyone from BN MUST praise Pak Helah’s speech, regardless whether you fully understand the contents of it or not. The “bodek-ing” will start from BN component parties’ leaders down to UMNO big sharks.

    Overall, as what i observe, this is a Bumiputra-friendly budget, and not a Malaysian-friendly budget.

  12. “All just sandiwara to bluff us rakyatinto voting for them la.” Smeagroo.
    All this while Musa has been objecting to the idea of IPCMC and why the change of heart? What’s more the change of heart is not unconditional, it has the caveat that it must have a fair procedure so that police are not victimised.This definitely can only come from a mind whose force is so tainted that he even suspect that an independently commissioned IPCMC has got vested interest to witch hunt the police force.
    Only reason for Musa to make such announcement is that GE is coming.Don’t need rocket science to arrive at this conclusion!

  13. Chief Police says he is satisfied?? That can only mean one thing i.e. some diluted version of the original, a compromise that would make it meaningless to have it at all. Why not just scrap it altogether rather than allow it to be used as a tool to show how transparent justice is?

  14. .

    One ought to be apprehensive when such important bill has to go thru the AG.

    This AG, like the useless sitting pretty cj, is nothing more than just a dodo with incompetence written all over.

    The ag and cj together with the mr negative law minister make a very good triplet of dumb dumber and dumbest.

    Sad but true.

    .

  16. Be prepared for the facts that the IPCMC will be used to protect the police rather than the victim.

    The OSA is already being used to protect those corrupt BN politicians.

    So they will have to come up with something to protect the corrupt police force as well.

Leave a Reply