While the Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has shut the door on the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang provides a reminder that the former has always been against it.

NONE In his latest press statement, Lim - the Ipoh Timor MP and DAP parliamentary leader - said that it was Hishammuddin who had led the opposition against the establishment of the IPCMC five years ago.

“(Hishammuddin) even went against the then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who had publicly committed himself to accept and implement the IPCMC recommendation,” said Lim ( right ).

Former chief justice Mohd Dzaiddin Abdullah had headed the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police in 2005 after the ‘nude-squat’ incident, where a female police detainee was caught on video doing ear-squats naked.

Mohd Dzaiddin had then recommended   the establishment of an IPCMC to deter future cases of police abuse, a suggestion also  supported by Abdullah then.

Hisham still chief IPCMC opponent

However, Hishammuddin - then Umno Youth chief - had vocally opposed the suggestion, saying that the commission will not solve the police abuse problems, a statement which he repeated again yesterday.

“It was the combination of political opposition from Umno and police opposition led by the police leadership at the time which forced Abdullah to backtrack and finally scuttle the IPCMC proposal,” said Lim.

NONE “Hishammuddin’s reiteration that the government still has no plans to form an IPCMC is the strongest proof of continuing lack of political will to eradicate police abuses and corruption,” he added.

“The spate of high-profile cases of police abuse and custodial deaths in the past few years... have again highlighted the need for an IPCMC where public complaints of police abuses could be seen to be addressed with full seriousness, authority, independence, impartiality and professionalism.

“With the Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s 'People First, Performance Now' slogan, Hishammuddin as Home Minister should table a formal proposal asking the Cabinet to revisit the IPCMC recommendation instead of continuing to spearhead opposition to it,” said Lim.

In recent years, there have been a string of high-profile cases of deaths in police custody, shootings and assaults.

More recently, there has been outrage over the shooting of teenager Aminulrasyid Hamzah and the assault of businessman Chia Buang Hing .