Give IPCMC a chance

My heart broke when another day began with yet another tragic death of a civilian at the hands of the Malaysian police.

This time, the calamity fell on Sugumar Chelliah, a security guard allegedly beaten to death. Most shockingly, there are witness accounts that he had been smeared with turmeric powder before meeting his miserable end.

And typically, the police attempted to wash their hands off of the brutality by claiming that Sugumar died of a heart attack.

Yeah right. Malaysians are indeed a bunch of morbidly obese or hopelessly depressed people who either succumb to a heart attack, or resort to suicide when the police catch up with us for all sorts of reasons. But I don't see any corrupt official collapsing at hearing his or her own scandals being exposed. In fact, some remain feisty and even unrepentant, such as Ling Liong Sik and Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

The police, backed by the government, are in the habit of explaining away their own misconduct, regardless of how ridiculous and silly the excuses may sound.

Remember Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor, an ex-inspector-general of police (IGP) who gave Anwar Ibrahim his world-(in)famous black eye? Dr Mahathir Mohamad rushed to the rescue of his faithful servant by suggesting that Anwar's wounds could have been self-inflicted. All the evidence that came later proved him utterly wrong, and Rahim Noor ended up losing his job and serving in jail, albeit briefly.

And lest we forget that in almost every massive rally prior to the Jan 12 protest at Stadium Merdeka, the police had accused the organisers and participants of stoking violence by bringing with their persons, “sticks, rocks and knives”. None of the allegations was substantiated. When the police finally had no option but to exercise their duty properly, it was all jolly fine, and even festive.

My conclusion? Trust the police's words at one's peril.

‘Our police remain instruction-oriented’

I cannot emphasise enough that those who are concerned over the police's lack of accountability are fast losing track of the number of deaths in custody, detention, or other forms of police brutality in Malaysia, the wanton killing of Aminulrasyid Amzah being a case in point.

The police themselves admit that there were 147 people who died in custody between 2000 and 2010. Such a staggering figure would have shaken the conscience of any civilised society. Sadly, in Malaysia, it remains what it pretty is - just another statistic.

Despite the rising crimes and the increasingly unsupervisable police force, Malaysians have returned the Barisan Nasional to power time and time again. Knowing that the entire government is corrupt to the core, all the seasoned journalists of the mainstream media continue to urge the authorities to expedite the ‘process of reform’.

What reform are they referring to? Parliament will be dissolved in less than a 100 days from now. If the Najib Abdul Razak administration has failed to tackle our national malaise root and branch when he has had nearly four years to do so, what makes these naive reporters think that the apprentice prime minister can pull a rabbit out of his empty hat by April?

It is not that none of the previous governments had made no effort to improve the police's efficiency and image. To his credit, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi sought to rectify some of Mahathir's misdeeds by forming a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the police force. The eventual report, published in 2005, confirmed that the police were “brutal, inept, and the most corrupt” among all the government agencies.

No doubt Mahathir was livid, but Abdullah went a step further when he proposed an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) bill in Parliament, as recommended by the RCI. It became still-born when the government - or the ‘Fourth-Floor Boys’ to be precise - realised that the political costs of actually passing it would be too high.

Hence, one should cease wondering by now why Mahathir is like a bear with a sore head whenever he hears of the acronym RCI!

With Abdullah's compromise and subsequent exit from Seri Perdana, the nation lost a precious opportunity for an independent police watchdog directly answerable to Parliament. Hishammuddin Hussein continues to resist the idea of an IPCMC in order to protect his own political interests, and has done nothing to change the entrenched and endemic culture of impunity within the police force.

Since there is no political will on the part of the government in reform, our police remain instruction-oriented, rather than investigation-oriented. Whether it is inaction or over-action, it all leads to more crimes and deaths.

Given that Hishammuddin lacks the courage to take responsibility, the only way to remove him from the job as home minister is to get rid of the Barisan Nasional so that we may have a slight chance of implementing the long overdue IPCMC, and that those like Aminulrasyid and Sugumar did not die in vain.

And I hope that this time, Malaysians would not end up as the losers.

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.