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Press Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Tuesday) : The Cabinet agenda  tomorrow should give priority to  Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Bakri Omar’s insubordination and open contradiction of the Prime Minister’s replies in Parliament only a few days earlier about the 125 recommendations of the first Royal Police Commission.

In his  199^th Police Day Speech read out to all police contingents throughout the country on Saturday, 25^th March 2006, Bakri announced that the police top brass had rejected 24 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission, including the most important recommendation for the establishment of an Independent :Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

This was an open slap-in-the-face by the IGP to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also Internal Security Minister, for two reasons:

• Abdullah’s public statement that the Cabinet Committee on Implementation of the Royal Police Commission Recommendations chaired by him had decided “in principle” on 24th January 2006 to set up the IPCMC and the Attorney-General had been tasked to make detailed proposals on its establishment; and

• Abdullah’s replies in Parliament this month  which stated very clearly that apart from one of the 125 recommendations, namely Recommendation 93 to have two Deputy IGP Posts, which had been rejected, all the other 24 recommendations which do not come into the first batch of 81 recommendations or 65% which are being implemented or the second batch of 19 recommendations or 25%, which are in various stages of implementation, the rest are  “under discussion and study” by the five sub-committees which had been set up regarding  the recommendations.

This was the  Prime Minister’s answer  to me during question time on  the first day of Parliament on 14^th March.  This was again repeated and elaborated by the Prime Minister in his written answer to DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok the following week on Tuesday, 21^st March 2006.

However, four days later, on the 199^th Police Day on 25^th March 2006, Bakri repudiated the Prime Minister’s replies and commitment in Parliament that 24 commission recommendations, including the IPCMC, were still undergoing continuing discussion and study, by declaring the Police rejection of these proposals.

It would appear that Bakri has forgotten who are the policy-making authorities in the country, that it is not the Police which makes policy but the Prime Minister, Cabinet and Parliament.

If such a big fuss was made over the memorandum by the nine non-Muslim Ministers to the Prime Minister  in the wake of the M. Moorthy and Article 121(1A) controversies, it would not speak well for the authority of the Prime Minister and Cabinet if tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting is not prepared to put the IGP’s unprecedented insubordination on its agenda.

(28/03/2006)