Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Sibu on Tuesday, 11^th May 2010: 

Call on Cabinet tomorrow to formally apologise to family and nation for the trigger-happy police killing of 14yr-old Aminulrasyid and measures to end all police shooting deaths

I fully support the demand by Aminulrasyid Amzah’s family for a direct apology from the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan, Selangor Chief Police Officer Deputy Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar and the Home Ministry for tainting the 14-year-old Form III student’s name after the heinous, criminal and fatal shooting of Aminul by trigger-happy police on April 26 at 2 am some 100 metres from his Shah Alam house.

Aminulrasyid’s uncle, Kamarudin Hassan, said today that the family wants a direct apology from the IGP, the Selangor CPO and the Home Ministry as well as retraction of the statement that a parang was found in the vehicle.

Kamaruddin said:

“We appreciate and thank the authorities for their speedy action in charging the police corporal but we want Aminul’s name to be cleared.

“Since this incident occurred, the IGP and everyone else never once apologised to us for calling Aminul a robber and saying that they had found a weapon in his car.

“If they can bring the police corporal to court, it shows that Aminul was not a suspected criminal as claimed.”

I will go a step further and call on the Cabinet at its weekly meeting tomorrow to formally apologise to Aminulrasyid’s family and nation for the trigger-happy police killing of 14yr-old Aminulrasyid and measures to end all police shooting deaths.

Scrap the joke of the Special Panel headed by the Deputy Home Minister Datuk Abu Seman Yusop and instead, take the bold step to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by former Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Hanif Omar to inquire into all police shooting deaths since 2005 and recommend measures which will bring an end to all police shooting deaths.

Specificially, the IGP, CPO and the Home Ministry also owes 15-year-old Azamuddin Omar, Aminul’s friend who was in the fated vehicle when Aminul was killed at the steering wheel with a bullet from the back of his head.

It is a clear defamation that both the teenagers were described by the Police as “robbery suspects” in a vehicle with a parang, when there were no evidence whatsoever to support such preposterous allegations.

Recently, the country had been shocked by a spate of police shooting cases including fatal ones giving the world the atrocious image of Malaysia as a lawless country where instead of the police being guardians of law and order, few “black sheep” in the Police are allowed to take the law into their own hands to execute summary justice!

This not so much the fault of individual miscreants in the police force but a major breakdown of a proper institutional system of check and balances and the principles of accountability, transparency and democratic policing.

If the Najib government is to take the first step to restore public confidence in the police as well as the whole system of governance under his premiership, then the time has come to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

There can be no argument that the five-year delay in the implementation of the key recommendation of the Police Royal Commission in 2005 to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class police service to keep crime low, eradicate poverty and uphold human rights, the establishment of IPCMC, as resulted in further deterioration of police standards of accountability and transparency.

If the IPCMC had been in place in the past five years, Aminulrasyid would still be alive today as the spotlight of public accountability would have created a more accountable and efficient police environment which would make it less susceptible to irresponsible actions like the criminal and heinous trigger-happy killing of Aminulrasyid.

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is coming to Sibu tomorrow. I hope he can give a comprehensive account of the Cabinet decision to assure Malaysians that the crime and tragedy of trigger-happy police killing of Aminulrasyid will never happen again in Malaysia.

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