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Malaysian Bar: Set up IPCMC for force urgently
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16, 2014:
The Royal Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police published its report in May 2005, nine years ago, to address challenging issues facing the force.
The issues were the “widespread concerns regarding the high incidence of crime, perception of corruption in the Royal Malaysia Police, general dissatisfaction with the conduct and performance of police personnel and a desire to see improvements in the service provided by the police”.
In addition, the Royal Commission also identified that there were too many deaths in custody, the failure of the police to investigate them and the failure to hold inquests into these deaths. These were key concerns raised by members of the public, non-governmental organisations and international organisations.
Speaking at the Public Forum on Police Accountability in Malaysia, Malaysian Bar Council president Christopher Leong today reiterated calls to the government to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), particularly in light of the deaths in police custody that continued unabated.
He said the report stressed that the police code of conduct had failed to ensure supervision and command accountability in protecting the rights and public interests of the public.
“The report made 125 specific recommendations and emphasised that the internal oversight mechanism governed by the police themselves was ‘inadequate, unreliable and frequently ineffective’.”
He said the most vital of the recommendations was the proposal to establish the IPCMC, an independent and external commission tasked solely to receive and investigate complaints about police misconduct and abuse.
The Royal Commission went so far as to publish a full-fledged Bill to implement the IPCMC, as part of its Royal Commission report.
But in the meantime, detainees continue to die under questionable circumstances while in the custody of the police, Leong said.
He said according to information received from the government in Parliament on June 26, 2013, there were 231 deaths in police custody between 2000 and May 2013. That was roughly one death in custody every three weeks.
The most recent case was that of A. Kugan, who died in police custody five years ago. The Court of Appeal had called for “zero tolerance” of custodial deaths and recommended independent public inquiries to be held for all such cases.
On Aug 8, when delivering judgment of the Court of Appeal on the case, Justice David Wong Dak Wah said: “There should be zero tolerance to any custodial death in all remand centres in the country.
“And should custodial death happen, a public independent inquiry must be initiated to commensurate with the right of the family of the deceased to know when there is some doubt as to the cause of the death.”
In his written judgment on the same case, Justice David Wong Dak Wah expressed concern over the admission of former Selangor police chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, who is now the Inspector-General of Police, that he had negotiated with the Attorney-General for investigations into the death to be merely confined under section 330 of the Penal Code, which is for voluntarily causing hurt to extort a confession or to compel the restoration of property.
“One of the most notorious deaths in custody cases was that of 32-year-old Dhamendran Narayanasamy, who was found dead at the Kuala Lumpur police contingent headquarters on May 21, 2013, his eleventh day in police remand,” said Leong.
He explained that police initially had claimed that Dhamendran had died from breathing difficulties.
However, following a post-mortem at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital on May 22, the pathologist’s full post-mortem report documented 52 injuries on Dhamendran’s body.
Six days after Dhamendran’s death, James Ramesh, 40, was found dead at the Penang police contingent headquarters on May 27, 2013.
These two deaths in quick succession caused public outrage.
The unabated deaths in custody were one of the very reasons why IPCMC was mooted but had not been seriously addressed by the government, Leong said.
He said that as a result, the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) established a task force on May 28, 2013 to investigate the custodial deaths of the two men, but it was disappointing that there had been scant news on the findings till today.
Bernama reported last year that the local media had reported that Khalid had stated that there was no need for the IPCMC to be established as the EAIC could handle issues relating to the integrity and discipline of the police.
The same year, Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi also said the proposed setting up of the IPCMC had been rejected by the government as it was not in line with the Federal Constitution and was against the concept of justice.
