IGP should do the right thing and move on
Despite having faced so much adverse reaction against his remarks that the Police can question children without parents’ presence, it is disappointing and baffling that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar still refuses to do the right thing.
Following calls by Suhakam and Bar Council that the Police must respect and protect the children’s rights, I have on September 8 asked IGP to retract his remarks as what he said can and will become guide and instructions to Police on how to carry out their duties.
"We know how to interview children, we have kids too," was his yesterday’s response to criticisms of their interviewing primary school children of SK Seri Pristana.
He said that the police who interviewed the pupils were also parents and they used their common sense when questioning the pupils.
I want to ask the IGP two questions—do you really understand why the public, human rights lawyers, Suhakam and Bar Council have demanded that there must be parents’ presence for Police to question children? Do you understand what is the spirit of Child Act 2001?
If he has understood them, then he should have been able to give a good, satisfactory and common sense answer which is “yes, we understand parents’ fear and public concern and will ensure parents’ consent and presence” and move on.
But he has disappointed the public again with his yesterday’s response to my call to withdraw his earlier “parents’ presence is not needed” remarks.
On August 28, Sungai Buloh district police chief Junaidi Bujang admitted to police “interviewing the students at SK Seri Pristana when one day earlier he had denied so.
He said that "no instructions" were given to question the children.
"There is no such thing. There was never any instruction on my part. I did not ask any officer to do so. In any case, what would the children know?" he had told Malaysiakini when asked if police had questioned the children.
Such answers certainly do not inspire much public confidence.
The IGP has a few days ago asked the arrogant question “who said we can’t question children?” and yesterday he was basically asking the parents to trust the Police by saying “we have kids too”.
The IGP should know that such response will not inspire public confidence and obtain public support.
The only and best way to ally parents’ fear is to ensure parents’ presence when children are questioned by the police.
I call on the IGP to do the right and common sense thing—to respect the spirit of the Child Act 2001 and to issue a directive and appropriate guidelines to the Police to ensure that the rights of children are respected and protected at all times.
