Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Sibu on Saturday, 8^th May 2010: 

Prime Minister Najib given until 11 am tomorrow to set up Hanif Omar RCI into police trigger-happy killing of Aminulrasyhid or I will ask Sibu voters to use by-election to send clear message that they want a IPCMC to create an efficient, independent, incorruptible world-class police service

I congratulate the Selangor Police Chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar for the speed with which his official car stolen two days ago had been found.

This was the result of the bungling of the car thief in stealing of all things the Selangor Police Chief’s official car which will condemn not only the thief but all handlers of stolen goods as targets of concentrated police search, surveillance and fire, which will make their lives among the most miserable on earth.

No wonder the car thief abandoned Khalid’s jet-black Perdana V6 when he discovered the identity of the car which he had stolen, leaving the vehicle on the side of the road in Prima Damansara with the apologetic note on the dashboard from the car thief: “Sorry PDRM tesilap sapu” (Sorry PDRM: a mistake).

The car was found at 8.45am by police officers who were making their rounds in the area.

The farce of the Selangor CPO’s stolen official car for two days however is at the expense of the Police and the ordinary people – for it is a frightful reminder to Malaysians how unsafe Malaysia has become, whether in terms of their personal safety but also of their property.

Who would expect thieves or robbers to return their ill-gotten gains with an apology attached, unless the victim happened to be the Selangor CPO or Inspector-General of Police?

The farce of the Selangor police chief’s two-day stolen car and the tragedy of the police trigger-happy killing of 14-year-old Form III student Aminulrasyid Amzah some 100 metres from his Shah Alam house on April 26 at 2 am whose only crime was unlicensed underaged driving of his sister’s car to watch a live football with his friends at the neighbourhood mamak stall combine to underline that the country is grappling with a serious crisis of confidence in the Malaysian police – despite the formation of a Police Royal Commission six years ago.

It is precisely because the Barisan Nasional government had failed to take the Police Royal Commission’s recommendations seriously, in particular its key recommendation for the establishment of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service with three core functions to keep crime low, wipe out corruption and uphold human rights, that public confidence in the police today is at an all-time low.

The Deputy Home Minister and Chairman of the Special Panel into Aminulrasyid’s killing, Datuk Abu Seman Yusof said yesterday that there are “some inconsistencies” in the police case on the killing of Aminulrasyid that needs to be resolved as “We do not want the public to raise any issue of a cover-up”.

Abu Seman has made an under-statement as the ordinary rakyat can see “huge holes” in the police case on Aminulrasyid’s killing – for instance:

• why the police classified the case as murder yet the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan calls for an inquest;

• why both the Selangor CPO and IGP jumped to the conclusion that Aminulrasyid and his companion and eye-witness of his being shot to death by the police, Azamuddin Omar, 15, were suspected criminals (even claiming that a parang was found in the car) without any thorough and professional police investigations?

• Why the IGP and Police CPO have not apologised for the slur on the reputation on the two boys as well as on their families; and

• Why is it necessary to subject Azamuddin to three sessions of police questionings over the very same version of events if the Police investigators had been responsible, thorough and professional as the 15-year old stuck consistently to his first police report on 26th April as to the circumstances leading to the heinous killing of his friend.

It is not just the police, but Abu Seman himself who must explain the many “inconsistencies” about the Special Panel, viz:

• How it started as a powerless body which cannot inquire into Aminulrasyid’s death or make recommendations to the police and transformed into a super-powerful body which seems able to do anything; and

• Under what laws the Special Panel derive all these extraordinary powers overnight or is it an illegal and unconstitutional body?

I am giving the Prime Minister Najib until 11 am tomorrow to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar to investigate into police trigger-happy killing of Aminulrasyhid and all police shooting deaths or I will ask Sibu voters to use the current by-election to send a clear and unmistakable message that they want two things:

• A Royal Commission of Inquiry into Aminulrasyhid’s death and all cases of police shooting deaths since 2005; and

• An IPCMC to create an efficient, independent, incorruptible world-class police service.

Firstly, this notice is not a short one as in this era of instant communications in the age of Internet, Najib would know of what I say in a matter of minutes of issuing the statement.

Secondly, the heinous crime of Aminulrasyid’s killing did not happen yesterday but close to two weeks ago and the Prime Minister has all the facts for an instant decision to be taken without needing any further report or briefing from the police.

Will the SUPP Candidate for Sibu, Robert Lau Hui Yew, support the establishment of a RCI into the Aminulrasyid’s death and all police shooting deaths since 2005?

Will he support the establishment of an IPCMC to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service?

Or would he have no views saying that these issues have nothing to do with the Sibu by-election?

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor