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Press Statement

by Lim Guan Eng

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(Petaling Jaya, Friday): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has again broken one of his many 2004 general election promises by going back on his pledge to combat corruption with the proposed SCC not being permitted to investigate corruption in the police force and other enforcement agencies. Clearly the SCC is not even a pale shadow of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) proposed by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police in January 2006.

DAP shares the deep disappointment of the Chairman of the Royal Commission Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah that the ambit of the proposed SCC was “something entirely different from what we recommended”. Dzaidin termed the SCC’s remit over all enforcement officers at federal level as “a complete departure” from what was proposed and that the government did not accept the core recommendation of an independent oversight body. If the government was not going to accept the recommendations of the Royal Commission in the first place, then one can only conclude that this exercise was a mere publicity stunt to hoodwink the voters to vote for BN in the 2004 general elections.

Clearly both the police and the government did not want an IPCMC for fear of its powers of oversight over the police, which would not only weaken control by the BN politicians but also expose complaints of misconduct and corruption. By not allowing any investigation into corruption and other serious misconduct, the main aims of the Royal Commission to improve police integrity and increase public confidence in the police to effectively carry out its primary functions of reducing crime would not be achieved.

Under the original IPCMC proposal, misconduct was defined as including police corruption, police involvement in criminal offences and non-compliance with legal and police regulations. However there is no mention of corruption at all in the SCC Act. DAP wishes to remind the Prime Minister that he can not wish corruption away by just not mentioning corruption.

A former senior police officer, Datuk Othman Talib, was more polite in writing in the New Straits Times today that the SCC can be said to have less bite than the IPCMC, as the SCC would act more of a conduit for citizens to lodge complaints. In other words, the SCC would be limited to an inquisitorial and investigative role with no punitive powers. What different then is the SCC from SUHAKAM or the Public Complaints Bureau which functions as a toothless tiger that merely listens and record complaints without any powers to redress, correct or punish the malpractices and misconduct?

The SCC would be a waste of Parliament time and all the resources of time and money put in by the Royal Commission. Malaysians are unhappy with Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi for rejecting the IPCMC in favour of an ineffective and impotent SCC that will not serve to check the abuses of power, corruption and misconduct in the police force that should be effective with criminals and not spend more time detaining innocent Malaysians.

Abdullah is signaling that he is allowing the police to continue with its excesses as long as the police can help BN to deal with the opponents of BN pressing for greater freedoms, democracy and socio-economic justice. The public can not be faulted for its suspicions that the SCC is the reward by Abdullah to the police for carrying out the arbitrary arrests against peaceful demonstrators and unlawful detention without trial of several Hindraf leaders under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for 2 years.

As Internal Security Minister, Abdullah must explain and account why the core recommendations of the Royal Commission to establish the IPCMC was rejected. Only an IPCMC can function like a moral lighthouse that shines and exposes all the wrongdoings and abuses in the police force, to ensure that the “Saya Anti-Rasuah” button worn by the police says what it means instead of become a sad and sick joke.