MPs: Withdraw IPCMC Bill

Reports by RAHIMY RAHIM, HEMANANTHANI SIVANANDAM, MARTIN CARVALHO and TARRENCE TAN

KUALA LUMPUR: Several lawmakers have called on the government to withdraw the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill 2019, which was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat in July.

Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz (BN-Padang Rengas) urged Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin to retract the Bill as it was not the main agenda of the Perikatan Nasional government.

“As an Umno and Barisan (Nasional) lawmaker, we never agreed to the setting up of the IPCMC.“Since Umno is now with Perikatan, we are not comfortable that the Bill is slotted number seven in the Order Paper,” Nazri said while debating the Supplementary Supply (2019) Bill 2020 in the Dewan Rakyat.

He argued that the police force, as a professional body, could solve any complaints made against any of its members internally.

“Just like the Malaysian Bar, they also deal with the public.

“If there was any misconduct by its members, the Bar will hear and deal with such cases,” he said.

Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) also agreed.

“This is a good idea, we want the Home Minister to withdraw the Bill.

“Instead, we should bring the Bill back to the Select Committee to check its direction,” he said.

Ramli Mohd Nor (BN-Cameron Highlands) also stood up, and asked whether the Bill was constitutional.

Nazri added that the Bill was an injustice to the police force as other enforcement agencies did not have similar commissions to check any form of misconduct.

“If we want the police to have a commission, we should also have a commission for each enforcement agency such as the Customs Department and the Immigration Department, which are also open to corruption,” added Nazri.

On Monday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin said the government intended to table a new Bill to replace the IPCMC.

Hamzah said he would be tabling the Independent Police Conduct Commission Bill (IPCC) on Aug 26 to replace the current IPCMC.

The IPCMC was tabled for its first reading by the then Pakatan Harapan government on July 18 last year.

The then Opposition bloc, consisting of Barisan Nasional, PAS and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), indicated that they would not support the IPCMC Bill.

The IPCMC Bill was subsequently referred to a special select committee after the second reading on Oct 7 last year to allow for improvements on the proposed law.