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| Photo taken on April 29, 2015 after the Royal Police Commission submitted findings on the then Prime Minister |
Ten years ago on April
29, 2005 the Royal Commission headed by Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin bin Haji Abdullah
completed and presented the Commission Report to the Yang dPertuan Agong and the
Prime Minister on how to enhance the operation and management of the Royal
Malaysian Police.
The establishment of this
Royal Commission on Feb 4, 2004 was hailed as a major initiative of the then
Prime Minister Abdullah “amidst widespread concerns regarding high incidence of
crime, perception of corruption, general dissatisfaction with the conduct and
performance of police personnel and a desire to see improvements in the service
provided by the police”
The major findings of the
Royal Commission were summarized in the nine major challenges confronting PDRM
and in the ten strategic thrust proposed including 125 recommendations.
Ten
years on what are our reflections.
First, we can see visible
improvement in the infrastructure facilities of the Police and a Police with
better equipments’ and resources for effective Policing.
Second, we can note that
the Federal Government set crime reduction and perception of crime as a major effort
of effective governance through the National Key Performance Areas (NKRA),
Third, the establishment
of the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) as an independent
monitoring and enquiry oversight to Police and other enforcement agencies.
Ten years ago the Royal
Commission received 926 complaints of which 191 complaints regarding abuse of
power and 186 on inefficiency and lack of accountability, 119 complaints on
poor public relations, 98 on Police corruption and 20 complaints on death in
police custody. A total of 316 suggestions were received from the Public and
another 22 suggestions were received from PDRM
Contemporary
Concerns in 2015
Ten years on in 2015 we
continue to have major issues on public confidence and PDRM, continuing
concerns of death in custody issues, abuse of power including issues pertaining
to “arrest first and then investigate” including Police handing of public
assemblies and in the use of the Sedition act has raised major concerns
inconsistent with UDHR.
Major concerns have been
voiced by human rights based civil society on the ineffective performance of
EAIC and the limiting legal provisions which falls short of the originally
IPCMC prosed by the Police commission.
In addition the recent amendments to the
Sedition Act and the Prevention of Crime Act and the new legislation on the
Prevention of Terrorism Act has restricted compliance to universal human rights
standards which can be reviewed as back stepping the earlier shift from restrictive
democratic space to an open but accountable political climate which enhances
civil and political rights for all sections of Malaysian society.
Recommendations
in 2015
We note with great
concern that there is a no comprehensive public document or impact review
report which has systematically analysed the implementation of the 125
recommendations.
We therefore call on the
Federal Government:-
To convene a meeting of
the former Royal Commission members for a briefing and review
To establish an
independent and professional impact assessment team to review the findings and
delivery over the last 10 years
To establish a formal public
dialogue mechanism with civil society and PDRM on public complaints
To reconsider and
implement the recommendation of the Royal Commission to set up the IPCMC as a
separate oversight body for PDRM
To issue a status report
on the implementation of the Royal Commission recommendations noting the
achievements, challenges, gaps and failures so as to ensure a renewed
commitment in enhancing the operations and management of PDRM
Issued by two former
Royal Police Commission members namely:-
Datuk Kuthubul Zaman
Bukhari (Proham Chairman) and Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria (Secretary General
Proham)
April 29, 2015
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