Home  Learn Press Statements Table the IPCMC Bill, not the Special Complaints Commission Bill
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Table the IPCMC Bill, not the Special Complaints Commission Bill |
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Monday, 07 January 2008 |
Amnesty International Malaysia Public Statement
14 December 2007
Table the IPCMC Bill, not the Special Complaints Commission Bill
Amnesty International Malaysia expresses grave disappointment over the tabled Special Complaints Commission Bill in Parliament instead of the IPCMC Bill proposed by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police.
The new Bill in obvious terms defeats the true intention of the Royal Commission to improve the professionalism of the force and to ensure that doctrines, laws, rules and procedures are observed and implemented by the police.
The tabled Bill failed to address the fundamental need for a complaint mechanism to make the police be accountable to the public for their action or omission to act on public complaints. The Special Complaints Commission also lacks independence and powers to check and balance. We are alarmed that the Special Complaints Commissions Bill intends to place the Inspector General of Police in the oversight governance structure. We are also concerned that the Special Complaints Commission has in fact no powers to conduct independent investigations into the police force – in effect, submissions will be redirected to the police to investigate complaints made against themselves.
The Royal Commission in its 2005 report emphasized that internal mechanisms currently governed by the police themselves are inadequate, unreliable and frequently ineffective. The IPCMC was therefore introduced to address this ineffectiveness and unreliability, and to introduce a more reliable mechanism to address complaints made against the police in a just, transparent and fair manner. The Royal Commission saw this as a crucial way to improve much-needed public confidence in the policing system and to make the police force accountable to the public at large.
The proposed Special Complaints Commission is redundant as the public will not have the confidence and trust to lodge a complaint against the police. Firstly, this is because the Commission is governed by the IGP, and this creates a conflict of interests. Secondly, the investigation procedure leads back to the police, which creates another conflict of interests. Therefore, we are of the opinion that any complaint made by the public on the police force will probably not attain proper justice in an impartial manner free from any element of collusion.
We are also disappointed with the Attorney-General’s Chambers for expressly and unilaterally defeating the intention and recommendation made by the Royal Commission.
We fear that the Special Complaints Commission is merely an internal oversight mechanism and we strongly urge the government to table and implement the IPCMC Bill to comprehensively supersede the current Special Complaints Commission Bill immediately.
Released by
K. Shan
Campaign Coordinator
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