Police could ‘continue to act with impunity’ even with IPCC bill: Bar

KUALA LUMPUR – The passing of the highly controversial Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) Bill 2020 in Parliament recently could be seen as unavailing, as it lacks “sufficient bite” to deal with complaints about misconduct among police officers, said Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah.  

She said the bill would only allow recommendations by the complaints committee to either be sent to relevant agencies or the commission to direct a task force to conduct further investigations, but is unable to take action or dish out penalties.

“There must be a ‘sufficient bite’ in the particular bill for the commission to be able to take actions and carry out punishment.

“The IPCC bill that has just been passed does not have that ‘bite’,” she said during a podcast session with The Vibes.

The IPCC bill was introduced to replace the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill that was tabled in Parliament by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration in 2019. 

However, the new bill received criticisms from various quarters who branded it a “watered-down” version of the IPCMC. 

The PH presidential council stated that the aforementioned bill has not met the necessary requirements for institutional reforms, and the proposed police commission is weaker compared to the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission and even the IPCMC that was also previously deliberated. 

The weak bill, Cheah said, would nurture an environment where police would not be afraid should there be any misconduct.

“So they go around acting with impunity, and that’s the reason why there are certain types of behaviour that’s been carried out by certain personnel. 

“There were a lot of things within IPCMC that were supposed to empower the constitution in order to do the right thing,” she said.

Although the IPCMC has now been replaced, she stressed that there should be no fear of the bill. 

“At the end of the day, if it is done correctly and carried out properly, it only provides integrity to police, and the authorities should welcome it.

“They should want to instil public confidence in themselves,” she added. – The Vibes, August 8, 2022

Tune into the full episode of the podcast titled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Ep 11 here.