#kerajaangagal58 – New IGP Acryl Sani must succeed where seven IGPs have failed – transform Royal Malaysia Police into a world-class police force and implement proposals of the Police Royal Commission 16 years ago especially to hold an inquiry into every case of police death in custody
The new IGP Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani must succeed where seven IGPs before him have failed – to transform the Royal Malaysia Police into a world-class police force and implement the proposal of the Police Royal Commission 16 years ago especially to hold an inquiry into every case of police death in custody.
Sixteen years ago in 2005, the Police Royal Commission headed by a former Chief Justice, Tun Dzaiddin and the longest-serving former IGP, Tun Hanif Omar, said in its report that it viewed with “grave concern the unacceptable high incidence of deaths in custody and the failure by the authorities to hold inquests before magistrates in most of the cases” and proposed that “inquiries must be held by a magistrate into all cases of death in custody within one month of receiving the report of death”.
Although the longest-serving former IGP was the vice chairman of the Police Royal Commission, the police force led by six IGPs – Mohd Bakri Omar, Musa Hassan, Ismail Omar, Khalid Abu Bakar and Mohd Fuzi Haru - were hostile to the recommendations of the Police Royal Commission, in particular its proposal for the establishment of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) – except for the most recent IGP, Abdul Hamid Bador who did not have the time to establish the IPCMC as the Sheraton Move conspiracy toppled the democratically-elected Pakatan Harapan government after 22 months.
Penang Deputy Chief Minister, P. Ramasamy, said that two recent deaths in police custody, security guard S. Sivabalan and a cow milk trader, A. Ganapathy, are not going to be the last persons to die in custody.
That may be so, but let Sivabalan and Ganapathy not be the last persons to die in police custody without a full inquiry.
The notion that police personnel are immune from prosecution for gross abuses of power must be banished from all police personnel, as Malaysia must be a nation where there is the rule of law.
Let the new IGP Acryl Sani announce that every case of death in police custody will result in an inquest, starting with the two cases of Sivabalan and Ganapathy or must the new IGP get the greenlight from the Prime Minister or Home Minister?
If so, let the Prime Minister and Home Minister declare their stand on the matter.