PENAMPANG: Sabah Democratic Action Party (DAP) chief Jimmy Wong Sze Phin has joined the chorus calling for the immediate setting up of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).
The Kota Kinabalu member of parliament yesterday said Sabah DAP fully supported the party’s advisor Lim Kit Siang in urging the government to have the commission in place to help address growing public dissatisfaction against the police.
“We are calling on the Barisan Nasional (BN) government to stop delaying and accept immediately the proposed implementation of the long overdue Commission, especially to solve once and for all the scandalously high rate of deaths among detainees in police custody,” he said.
He claimed eighty people had died while in police custody in just four years, between January 2000 and December 2004, which translated to an average of 16 deaths annually.
The death rate worsened to 16.6 persons per year between January 2005 and May 2013 where a total of 141 persons died in police custody, he added.
“The most basic role of any police force is to protect life and property. It doesn’t make any sense to anyone to find a rising statistics of Malaysians losing their lives in police custody on a continuous basis.
“Also, the basic tenet of any democracy is the separation of powers between the police and the court. But where is it? Isn’t the role of the police to bring suspected offenders before the court alive and the court decides guilt and innocence and in case of conviction, decide on the punishment.
“But if people are dying in police custody, then it looks like a small number of police officers are usurping the role of the court and if that is not abuse of power, what is it?” he questioned.
He added that it was high time that police officers involved in abusing detainees be dragged to court and punished accordingly for their crimes, should they be found guilty, and this could be only be done effectively and transparently through an independent body such as the proposed IPCMC.
He stressed that the Commission should not discriminate or demoralize the police but be viewed as purely to discipline those who have failed to honour their duties and to bring justice to the victims, and more importantly to prevent further police misconduct and abuse.
He said it was puzzling why the government had been reluctant to accept the proposal while knowing well that their inaction could cause more people to die in police detention without justice.
Previously, DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang had proposed two options for speedily setting up the Commission, the first was to set up a Cabinet committee for formulating recommendations and necessary policies for the Commission.
The recommendations, upon submission to the Cabinet, could be announced as part of the new government policies and proposals in the Royal Address in Parliament on June 25, he suggested.
The other option he had proposed was for the Cabinet to allow members of parliament to have a free vote on the IPCMC proposal in its first meeting scheduled for June 24 to July 18.
“Lim has said the establishment of IPCMC can become a reality if there were 23 BN MPs who are prepared to join the 89 Pakatan Rakyat MPs to support the case.
“All four MIC MPs and also MCA vice president Gan Peng Sieu, have said they support the IPCMC proposal. It can then become law if all MPs were allowed to vote according to their conscience and end the scandalous deaths in police custody which no Malaysians should tolerate any further,” said Jimmy.
He added that Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi should stop delaying from taking action by asking for time to study the issues, which he believed was already over-studied.