The Malaysian Insight

THERE must be continued advocacy to ensure that the Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) Bill 2020 will have disciplinary powers as an oversight body, lawyers and civil society leaders said.

They said without disciplinary powers, the IPCC is merely a deeply flawed, “toothless tiger”.

The IPCC is a reiteration of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill drafted by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) 18 years ago.

M. Ramachelvam, co-chairman of the Bar Council Task Force on IPCMC and Police Accountability, said the current bill as it stands will not bring about accountability.

“This is a deeply flawed bill. It will not bring about police accountability,” Ramachelvam said at a forum organised by the Bar Council with the topic IPCMC & Police Accountability – The Way Forward.

“We need to amend this bill and table it in Parliament or withdraw, redraft and reincorporate what has been left out.

“The biggest problem with the bill as it stands is its lack of disciplinary powers. 

“Our plan is to continue our advocacy to ensure IPCMC or IPCC becomes a reality, but it should have the requisite powers. It has to have the requisite powers and resources to be effective.

“We have been in continuous engagement with the authorities and various players to ask for the formation of an IPCC that is a meaningful institution, not an institution in form without the substance.”

The forum hosted by the Bar Council was also attended by former Suhakam commissioner Mah Weng Kwai, former member of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police Ivy Josiah, Firdaus Husni from the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights, and Wong Yan Ke from Suara Rakyat Malaysia.

The IPCMC was proposed in 2005 to replace the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission as a way to increase the police force’s transparency and accountability. 

The bill was tabled for the first time in July 2019. 

In August last year, the Perikatan Nasional administration replaced the IPCMC bill drafted by the RCI 18 years ago with the IPCC bill. 

The new police oversight board would be parked in the Home Ministry under the amended bill, allowing the home minister to monitor its work. 

The IPCMC was supposed to be subject to the legal affairs division in the original plan. 

Critics have said that the IPCC lacks power to perform searches and seizures, limits investigative powers, and the appointment of its members is unclear and lacks independence.

Make it a voter issue 

Josiah, a former member of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police, which came up with the IPCMC, said the way forward to implement changes is to make it a voter issue.

“We need to make it into a voter issue. We need to get the public on our side and demand for a police commission,” she said.

Josiah said political will is also necessary to make changes.

“It will take all kinds of pressure. It will take informal chit-chatting and persuading the politicians and the leaders; it will take protests and it will take memoranda; but more than anything else, these political decisions will be made when the leadership says it’s time.

“The leadership will say yes when it realises its days are numbered and if it doesn’t do something about it, it is going to be very unpopular. That’s why I keep saying that it has to be a voter issue.”

She also drew parallels to the domestic violence act, which was mooted in 1985 and received severe backlash.

“I draw a parallel of the IPCMC to the domestic violence act. When the bill was mooted in 1985, there were criticisms that we were going to destroy homes and it was shameful to talk about the atrocities that happen in the family. 

“It is the same with the police, how dare we wash dirty linen in public. 

“When the domestic violence act was implemented in 1996, there was a 200% increase in police reports. 

“Perhaps the authorities are afraid of this. People are going to line up in front of the police commission,” she said. – June 29, 2022.