The Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) bill should be discarded as it was never on the Perikatan Nasional agenda, said Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.
The former tourism minister said it was Pakatan Harapan’s idea to set up the IPCMC, which Barisan Nasional had opposed because it was unfair to the police.
“(Speaking) as an Umno and Barisan Nasional lawmaker, we never agreed to the setup of the commission for the police.
“Since Umno is now with PN, we are not comfortable that the bill is slotted as No. 7 on the Order Paper,” Nazri said while debating the supplementary supply bill today.
Nazri said the government should withdraw the bill at once.
The IPCMC bill is to pave the way for an independent body to monitor the integrity of the police force and probe into complaints of misconduct involving police personnel.
Nazri said the police force, as a professional body, could internally investigate complaints against its members.
“Just like the Malaysian Bar, they also deal with the public. If there is any misconduct by its members, the Bar will hear and deal with such cases themselves. The police can do the same,” he said.
Nazri said he had faced pressure to set up the IPCMC back in 2004 when he was a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department who was in charge of legal affairs and reform.
“(But) I did not want to be unfair to the police force,” he said.
He said if there was going to be an independent investigative body for the police force, there should be one for each enforcement agency such as the Customs Department and the Immigration Department, which were also accused of corruption.
Noor Amin Ahamd (Kangar-PH) reminded Nazri that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had agreed to set up the IPCMC when he was the home minister in the Pakatan Harapan government.
Nazri countered that the prime minister at the time was Dr Mahathir Mohamad and not Muhyiddin, who as a minister then had to abide by the wishes of the cabinet.
He said Muhyiddin was no longer bound by the PH manifesto and must instead abide by PN’s wishes now.
Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said yesterday that the government intends to introduce a new bill to replace the IPCMC bill.
Hamzah said he would be tabling the Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) bill on August 26 to replace the IPCMC. He did not give further details.
The PH government tabled the IPCMC bill on July 18 last year for a first reading.
The bill was subsequently referred to a select committee for improvement after the second reading on October 7 the same year.
This was after the bill met with objections from the then opposition bloc made up of Barisan Nasional, PAS and Gabungan Parti Sarawak. – TMI