Posted on by Kit

Let Kugan not die in vain – entire Cabinet should resign if no RCI and IPCMC

A. Kugan would not have died in police custody if the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) had been operational since May 2006 as recommended by the Police Royal Commission headed by former Chief Justice Tun Dzaiddin and former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar.

If the IPCMC, the key proposal of the 125 recommendations of the Police Royal Commission to transform the Malaysian police force into an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service to discharge its three core functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption in the police force and uphold human rights had been set up in accordance with the timeline as proposed, a new mindset and culture of responsibility, accountability and professionalism would have been disseminated and developed in the police force in the past 30 months and saved the life of Kugan.

As it is, even the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar does not have this requisite mindset that he could come out with his latest howler, when he said that “the people should not regard criminals as heroes and the police who enforce the law as demons”.

This statement, as outrageous as his previous howler when he said last September that the Sin Chew senior reporter Tan Hoon Cheng had been detained under the infamous Internal Security Act for her personal safety, is strong testimony that Hamid is not capable of being a reformist Home Minister to undertake long-needed and far-reaching police reforms.

Malaysians, like people all over the world, do not regard criminals as heroes and the police as demons but when a Minister responsible for police makes a shocking statement of this nature, it reflects that something has gone very wrong both with the police force and the Home Minister with regard to the most basic of government duties – to keep the people safe and to uphold law and order.

As a lawyer and Home Minister, Hamid cannot presume that Kugan is a criminal as it must be left to the courts to decide whether Kugan was guilty of the crimes alleged against him.

Even if Kugan was guilty of the crimes alleged, the police cannot take the law into its own hands and continue to pile up the shocking statistics of deaths in police custody.

Although the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has reclassified Kugan’s death as murder, sent back police investigations and ordered a more thorough probe, as well as demanding to see the second post-mortem conducted by the University of Malaya Medical Centre, the police conduct and the Home Minister’s attitude had gravely undermined public confidence in the independence and professionalism of police investigations into Kugan’s death.

There can be no alternative to a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Kugan’s death in police custody, as well as the police and the Home Minister’s responses to the events after Kugan’s death.

Kugan’s death in police custody also marks the abysmal and final failure of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s reform programme, standing out as a tragic symbol of the pathetic end of his pledge for police reforms in particular and his reform agenda for the larger picture.

The Cabinet must rise to the occasion to take two decisions:

• Set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Kugan’s death in police custody and the immediate events after; and

• Belated acceptance of the Police Royal Commission’s key recommendation for the establishment of the IPCMC by ensuring that an IPCMC Bill is presented to next month’s Parliament.

Let Kugan not die in vain. It is time that the entire Cabinet take a stand on a matter of principle and to resign en bloc if it could not agree to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Kugan’s death and to present an IPCMC Bill to Parliament for passage next month.

45 Replies to “Let Kugan not die in vain – entire Cabinet should resign if no RCI and IPCMC”

  1. “Even if Kugan was guilty of the crimes alleged, the police cannot take the law into its own hands and continue to pile up the shocking statistics of deaths in police custody.”

    I told you we don’t need Hudud laws!

  2. Yes, let Kugan’s death be the change agent for a better police force. We the rakyat and politicians must call for the implementation of IPCMC immediately. Enough is enough. If the BN government wants to gain some respect back from the rakyat, it must not back down on this. It’s time we should also call for the resignation or sacking of Hamid the Home Minister. He’s totally incompetent and unfit for the position.

  3. What the public uproar is about a Kugan’s treatment while under police custody and this is not about a criminal. The criminal also has his basic right under the law. Anyway, Kugan was not convicted by the court and therefore should not be considered as a criminal.

    The way the external injuries on Kugan showed that there was immense toture and brutality and worse still death involved. A person would not die because of his asthmatic condition alone while under custody.

    No right minded Malaysians will make a hero out of a criminal and neither would any sensible human being accept the torture and beatings of any person , criminals included while under police custody.

    Covering up lies and using lies to cover up unfair treatment is a crime in itself. The police should be in the forefront in upholding justice , fair treatment of those under custody and accept responsibility if there were any wrongdoings by its own personnel.

  4. For something so grave as lock up deaths, Malaysian’s outrage if any are fairly muted, no doubt due to decades of suppression of free thoughts. We’re dealing with human lives here. People should be rallying in the streets, much more angry than when judges go on the take, or when there’s electoral fraud.

  5. My blood boiled on what the bloody stupid Syed Hamid said. Shame on us all Malaysian for having a minister with such idiotic brain. It is good that BN days are numbered with this type of minister; poor Pak Lah!

  7. The injuries inflicted on Kugan may not have caused death directly but the trauma could have induced the asthmatic attack.
    Without a quick medical intervention, death will result as the person will choke to death.
    Anyway the police should not be torturing suspects or maybe we are going to ask the USA to send us terrorists for such rendition?

  8. Bolehland has one of the most stupid idiotic bum running the HM. It is really amazing, that Bolehland with 27M people do not have any single capable and respected person running HM rather than this idiotic (deleted). The WHOLE world laugh at us.
    And the rate things are happening very soon we will be in the rank equivalent or maybe worst than Zimbabwe.
    Real Bolehland.

  9. High hopes for change! We have too many like Botak Syed Hamid in the UMNO-BN regime. Nothing will change and nothing will ever change…if the present evil govt is not removed.
    They are immune to the calls righteous people in the land, only evils and corruption in their minds. Sad but true.

  10. What do you expect? Huh? Its umno we are talking about here. Its umno gobermen we have here. Its not a chicken and egg situation we are facing. Its their inefficiency and corrupt ways that led to increased in crime. Now crime has gone out of hand and it is begining to hit them (police ocpd, daim etc all also kena) as well. They now panic and began their knee jerk reaction – simply shoot on sight and just whack them black and blue.

  11. The sandiwara that is being played out by the Botak aka Al Blur and the idiotic CPO of Selangor, not to mention the PIG aka top lapdog of the police force shows without any doubt that the police are calling the shots in Bolehland.

    Now it is obvious why they are against the IPCMC. They just don’t like accountablity, transparency and the very ethics that they should emulate in their line of duty.

    The PDRM want the present status quo so that they can be polis raja di Malaysia. And when they have a minister in denial as the Home Minister, the stage is set for more roadblocks, distruption of peaceful candle light vigils, harrassment and arrests of ordinary, peace loving citizen under trumped up charges. Moreover, more deaths in police custody becomes a strong possibility.

    All these, together with the recent loss of BN in the bye election in KT and the cross-over by a BN politician to Pakatan Rakyat show that people are fast losing their faith in Barisan Neraka with Najis at its helm.

    If BN ever wants to win over the rakyat, then it should get out of its denial syndrome and fast track the following:

    1. put in a credible and acceptable reform of the judiciary;
    2. implement the IPCMC as reccommeded by the Royal Commission of Inquiry;
    3. sack the Home Minister who is behaving worse than a gangster and bringing the BN and other ministers into disrepute;
    4. sack the IGP who seems to have lost his bearings and doesn’t know who to appoint to higher posts in the police hierarchy;
    5. sack the Selangor CPO for being crass, arrogant and incompetent in discharging his duties. He is only slightly better than the homeguards to whom he has abdicated the security of the citizens in this country.

    If the above is done asap, then the ordinary citizens (the rakyat) will know that the BN sincerely wants to CHANGE AND REBRAND ITSELF into a people friendly and caring government.

    Having said the above, I know deep in my heart that the present government is NOT capable and would not abandon its denial syndrome and the stupid ketuanan mindset.

    Real change for the better of the rakyat might salvage its abject showing in the 12th GE and the other bye elections. Staying in its bigoted, arrogant, racist and fanatical ketuanan stance will be its ultimate rejection by the rakyat and its demise.

  13. …..when he said that “the people should not regard criminals as heroes and the police who enforce the law as demons”.
    ====================================================

    Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar got his statement wrong. It should be “the people should not regard criminals as DEMONS and the police who enforce the law as HEROES”.

    Kugan, who was not even convicted of any wrongdoings, was MURDERED while in police custody – where is justice in Bolehland and where is police professionalism? We all know it is unsafe to walk on the street these days. However, it is equally unsafe to be under police detention.

    The once heroic image of the Malaysian police has been reduced to a devilish one by deaths in police custody. Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar must not stick his head in the sand anymore, but seek to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) as soon as possible before more custodial deaths occur.

  15. Syed Hamid Albar the omnipotent is the judge, jury, and executioner! He decides when to nab you in under ISA to protect you and to feed you. He decides who is good, ugly, or bad. He decides who is fit to live and who is fit to go.
    Power, man!

  16. We are really to blame for creating these monsters and putting them into the Cabinet, who in turn create more dragconian laws and even bigger monsters.

    Why would they want to change a single thing now. They are not stupid or incompetent, etc, as some suggest. The situation ( constitution ) is just perfect as it is for them now.

    Other than exercising our vote for change come the next election, I think we can only pray for some divine intervention.

  18. Mainstream papers have certain reports the effect of which, whether intentional or inadvertant could be interpreted as seeking to lessen/dampen public outrage about circumstances of Kugan’s death and sentiments against the Home Minister’s statement “the people should not regard criminals as heroes and the police who enforce the law as demons”.

    The Star under the Letters column has this letter written by a so-called “Concerned Citizen”: “ Bear in mind that in this case the deceased was arrested after a car chase, where the car involved was reported as robbed from its owner. Investigations led to the recovery of 15 cars. Thus it must not be ignored that Kugan is a perpetrator of crime.”

    I wonder how “Concerned Citizen” knows about this? Anybody can write under cloak of anonymity : even one of the perpetrators.

    Was Kugan arrested after a car chase? I don’t recall any report of the police having said so.

    The NST separately reported that 1 of the 6 men arrested during his funeral procession was a “wanted criminal”, there being an undertone of guilt by association – “see who were his friends!”

  19. Bad Poem for bad time
    =================

    Alive, minor cog in crime
    Age 22, life taken away
    At police station USJ
    Dead, symbol of force gone wrong

    Kugan, mighty BN slayer
    Symbol of Coalition run wild
    Hamid the Taliban
    And Khalid his henchman

    Sin of the Taliban
    Vested on UMNO,MCA, MIC
    Next election, gone, gone , gone

  22. Mr Home Minister,

    You are the most idiotic Home Minister this country has ever had. You do not display an iota of intelligence. You speak like a brainless simpleton. You are mentally sick, unable to distinguish between right and wrong.

    You arrest an innocent reporter under the ISA and then claim it was to protect her.
    Now you act as judge and prosecutor and convict, condemn and humiliate a dead man, who cannot even defend himself.

    In your own words you are saying that Kugan is guilty and deserves to be tortured and killed. And you exonerate the police and justify summary execution!

    Do you mean to say that Kugan is the demon and the police, hero?

    How low can you go? Do you have a conscience? Do you have a heart? Do you have a brain? Are you human? You are sick man, real sick!!

    YOU ARE A SHAME AND LIABILITY TO THE NATION. Pak Lah, please sack this idiot.
    http://mrsmith2.blogspot.com/

  23. thanks to our Home Minister who don’t even care a damn when a malaysian dies in police custody. what about foriegners?

    when he was in the Foriegn Ministry, he wouldn’t care less even we were to lose Pulau Batu Putih. what an irresponsible person.

    Syed hamid botak, please RESIGN immediately!

    you bring SHAME to Agama, Bangsa and Negara.

  24. YES YES and THANK, YOU YB LIM!! Just read your comments on M’siakini. You have again, pin point accuracy feedbacks on behalf of all rakyat in the country-on that idiot “ill-mind” botak,Home Minister.
    Many of us have been in oppression since this ‘tyrant’ took office. Its time now his ‘evil-doing’ be put to stop. Get this sob his deserving rewards (kick him out and lock him up) for causing pains to us all.Pls do not forget his henchmen too. Khalid Abu bakar, another evil-clown that has been bullying everyone he comes in contact.
    The people are down right sick of these morons running the country. Everything is done opposite to the law we all know. Culprits are rewarded whereas the innocent are jailed or murdered. We cannot affort to pay for their ‘illiteracy governence’ at the expense of our childrens. Pls pursue these cowards, in Parliment or anywhere to ensure they get what they earned.
    Thank you Thank you.

  26. One other thing, since we are still on this. More quires and questions not answered. Ppl can add if I left any point out.

    1. Who sign offf the first autopsy – Which Dr or Which butcher?
    Who is he/she, the public needs to know otherwise this same
    cowdangs will be signing off many more ‘drowning’ death –
    water in lungs?

    2. What evidence does it suggest that the 2 Deputy Minister broke
    what law in the mortury?
    If no evidence can be found, Does it make sense to charged
    the person who make that statement?

    3. Perwaris spokeman, instigator of racial sensitivity, why the he..
    is he now? What right does he have to give press statement on
    this subject?

    4. Who are these suspect? Up till now, all we know they are still in
    office doing desk work. Can you beat that?

    5. Can anyone clarify what exactly Kugan’s crime is? A suspect or
    a ‘witness’ to assist in some ‘non-threatening life’ crimes?

    6. Who make all this rediculous ‘findings’ of his death and for what
    reasons?

    7. How much has been spend for this entire case? Deployment of
    helicopter (instead of looking after crime) FRUseless, police,
    Cowards special branch, etc…

    8. We be patient, can we trust the report from hereon?
    If yes, why?

  28. Oh yeah…MMA please investigate which doctor signs the first autopsy and the death report. This doctor must be answerable to such unbecoming professional conduct. How can a doctor, who swears never to do deliberate harm to anyone for anyone else’s interest, conspires with the authority who swears to protect, fabricate such lies. If found guilty the Doctor must be sacked and brought to the courts to be jailed. Since when did we produce such irresponsible doctors?

  32. I tell you, I can puke blood whenever I see that botak fella on TV. He seems to be making statements which reflects his mentality… Makes me wonder if his law degree was bought… Or maybe even he graduated with a Third Class degree from some university…

  33. Even if Kugan is a car thief, he does not deserved a death sentence, (pronounced by police, executed by police) by beating to death!!
    There is little difference between Msia police n Zimbabwe police now!

  34. I echo all the sentiments about the fitness of our despicable Home Minister for the position. The guy is really intellectually challenged to sieve through facts and data and gets easily confused between the victim and the villain. If he had kept quiet, it would not have been that bad. But, no!!!! The guy has to open his mouth and let all the world know how pitiful he is. This guy’s got diarrhea of the mouth and it’s no wonder what comes out of it is just shit. Like the saying goes, “loose lips sink ships.” It looks like he is doing his part to help the BN ship sink even faster. It’s statements like these that anger the people.

    What is surprising after all these episodes, the superiors have not reigned him in and publicly rebuked him. It looks like the Captain is asleep at the wheel!

  35. ///Pewaris deputy chairman II, Rahimuddin Md Harun, told a press conference here that any protest during the procession was inadvisable as it might offend the sensitivities of others.///

    What can the protest be in a funeral procession? It would be a protest against something that had been done that caused the death. The death was the result of forces applied on the person because the deceased did not die of sickness, but of beating sustained during police custody. The protest then would be against perpetrators in the police detention centre which took the law in their own hand and ended in killing the crime-suspect.

    Citizens of a civilised society would not accept the death of a suspect in police custody as acceptable occurrence, if not an accident. Though the accused was an Indian, every citizen of the country, irrespective of race would not condone the actions which caused the death of the deceased. Thus, protest during the funeral procession offends nobody except the perpetrators. If anybody should feel that they are offended, then they are publicly declaring support for the actions of the perpetrators that caused the death of a crime-suspect during custody. To claim that the procession has any racial undertone would be to protect the perpetrators based on racial ground.

    The police personnel who had their hands in rendering the death of the deceased are government employees. The protest would be seen as against the government department which did not perform to the citizens’ expectation. To take the protest against the government as being racial simply show that the government was racially biased.

    Pewaris deputy Chairman was speaking his mind about the fact that the government is seen by Malays to be by them only and for them alone.

  36. The 9 policemen will be charged for “causing hurt”. Just like the murderers of Altantuya, the guilty parties will get away scot free in Kugan’s case too. Nothing surprising when the judiciary and police in the country are rotten to the core, being controlled by UMNO

  37. BN is a bloody circus – good for laughs but nmothig else. Only thing is these bun ch of clowns are in control of the country. Allah help us all – oops, I am not Muslim and Allah, the Arabic word for God before the advent of Islam, cannot be uttered by a non-Muslim. This is just one of their laughable antics. Not too long ago, Hishamuddin made as ass of himself. Then, Chew May13 Fun made an ass of herself in the run-up to GE12. Chua Sex Loi became a porn star. Then Bodowi clowned about the 308 results. Ali whatshis face made a national idiot of himself with his blog. And Syed Hamid AlBlahblah caps it all with a continuous series of utterly stupid statements. The list is too long. And the world is watching. Allah help Malaysia.

  39. dear YB,
    i am deeply saddened. From wat i read this is the background
    What : Man is car thief
    Why : He brings policeman to a fleet of stolen cars (or something like tat)
    Means wat : more or less, a criminal, exe a snatch thief…. brings misery to honest ppl who work hard everyday to make a living

    Then wat happen : Man dies under police custody
    Then wat happened after tat : Politics and Race takes center stage….. \Protect this Man who has caused misery to honest and law abiding citizens\ or say they say

    This is really SAD.
    My opinion, this man if he dies under police custody, is 1 criminal less in the country. Be appreciative… please!

  40. Will the 9 policemen to be charged in court be covered all over to prevent them from being publicly recognised like the 2 accuseds in the current Altantuya murder case? Why?

    YB Kit, it is important someone works on the first post-mortem / autopsy report, the doctor who signed it etc. Do not let this one go.

  41. ///Pewaris deputy chairman II, Rahimuddin Md Harun, told a press conference here that any protest during the procession was inadvisable as it might offend the sensitivities of others.///

    What sensitivities is this blockhead talking about? If there is injustice we must speak out as a nation to correct it. Keeping silent is not an option. Why must every injustice be associated with politics in their pea-brain head? We’re speaking about the individual right of every person to legal recourse.

    http://www.ifj.org/en/articles/lasantha-wickremantunge-and-then-they-came-for-me

    People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:

    First they came for the Jews

    and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

    Then they came for the Communists

    and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

    Then they came for the trade unionists

    and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

    Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

    If you remember nothing else, remember this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled. Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted. Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried.

  42. “the people should not regard criminals as heroes and the police who enforce the law as demons”. wat the hell this brainless stupid botak SHA talking about ? someone should have walloped his brain till he is brainless to have this kind of gomen comments. Shame on you SHA and the polis who walloped Kugan.

  43. look at the malay “instituitions”.
    police, judiciary, government.
    they want to be tuan. the push ketuanan melayu.
    in reality they have no competence
    and are running once fine instituitions to the
    ground. the capable malays who are sick and tired
    of the wanton destruction inflicted on malaysia
    by their own people should start speaking out now.

  45. Finally Kugan got a separate write up from you, thank you Sdr Lim. Now, pursue all the way, ask PAS to lead if necessary. Nik Aziz’s statement was encouraging. What about others from among the PAS leadership?
    Don’t be misled by the so-called murder investigation. They are masters in pacifying you after giving you the worst.

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