80% of Police Commission  recommendations implemented ahead of schedule – why Police not trumpeting from rooftops but hiding the light under the bushel?

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Monday): It is not in keeping with the police commitment to accountability, transparency and professionalism that the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Bakri bin Haji Omar has declined to meet DAP Members of Parliament to discuss the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to create a clean, accountable, efficient, human rights-sensitive, professional world-class police service.

In his reply last week to my earlier letter, Bakri quoted the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s announcement on the status of the implementation  of the recommendations of the Royal Police Commission – that 80% of the recommendations had been implemented.  Apart from listing the five sub-committees which had been set up on the recommendations, he said there was no need for any special meeting.

I am both puzzled and mystified by Bakri’s letter. Firstly, why must he quote the Prime Minister on the status of implementation of the 125 recommendations of the Dzaiddin Royal Police Commission when as the IGP, he should be able to independently give an update on implementation of the Commission recommendations.

Secondly, if it is true that as of last month, the Police had implemented 80 per cent of the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission, this means that it is well ahead of the time-line recommended by the Royal Police Commission.

Why then is the Police suddenly so shy and uncharacteristically modest   as not to trumpet such an achievement from the rooftops, choosing instead to “hide the light under  the bushel”?

In fact, the request by DAP MPs for a meeting with Bakri on the Commission recommendations would have given the Inspector-General of Police an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that the police had been wronged when it had in fact implemented the 125 Commission recommendations ahead of its time-frame.

The Commission in its Report had proposed a time-frame for the implementation of every one of the 125 recommendations – with 80 per cent or 99 recommendations to be implemented in five batches within 12 months by May 2006, viz:

If the Police had implemented 80 per cent of the 125 recommendations of the first Royal Police Commission by January this year, this means that the Police is ahead of the Commission’s proposed time-frame of implementation by some five months for 80 per cent of the recommendations – which calls for kudos and bouquets and not criticisms and brickbats.

This makes the refusal by Bakri to meet DAP MPs on the Commission recommendations even more inexplicable – unless the claim that 80 per cent of the 125 recommendations had been implemented by the police last month cannot bear scrutiny.

I presume that the  Police is not making any empty boast that it had implemented 80 per cent of the 125 recommendations and that it can list out the 99 recommendations which had already been implemented.

The request of DAP MPs for a meeting with the Inspector-General of Police and top police officers on the Commission recommendations stands and I hope that Bakri and the top police officers will change their mind in declining such a meeting – especially as the top police officers had recently had a meeting with UMNO Youth on the recommendations, in particular on the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

(20/02/2006)