Police oversight body almost 15 years in the making
KUALA LUMPUR: The Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) is almost 15 years in the making.
It was in 2005 that the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police Force recommended that an independent body be set up to oversee the police force.
The 16-member commission, headed by former chief justice Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, was formed in February 2004 to study and recommend measures to improve police efficiency and to make the force more effective in law enforcement.
Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was the prime minister then, set up the royal commission due to concerns about crime, corruption and the public’s dissatisfaction with police conduct.
There was also clamour from the public on the need for vast improvements in the service rendered by the force.
In its report published in 2005, the commission said the setting up of an independent external oversight entity would be a “milestone” in the evolution of policing in Malaysia.
There were 125 recommendations in the report, including the pivotal proposed bill for the establishment of the IPCMC.
The government, instead, chose to set up the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) as a federal statutory body, with the EAIC Act gazetted on Sept 3, 2009.
It was tasked with supervising 21 enforcement agencies, rather than only the police force, and was beset with a lack of resources to carry out its role effectively.
The main argument for IPCMC was that when allegations were made against the force, from deaths in custody and fatal shootings to enforced disappearances, there was a conflict of interest in allowing an internal police body to investigate its own men.
While calls for IPCMC to be set up were made from time to time, resistance from within the force, including from its retired members, remained.
The latest pressure for the government to set up the IPCMC came following the announcement of the results of a Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) inquiry into the disappearances of activist Amri Che Mat in November 2016 and Pastor Raymond Koh in February 2017.