Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has accused former Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) president Paul Low of backtracking on his support for the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission’s proposed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), after being made a federal minister.

“As the then-president of TI-M, Low told a press conference after presenting the 2009 Global Corruption Report that the watering-down of the proposed IPCMC into a special complaints commission strongly indicates the government’s inability to regulate the gatekeepers,” wrote Lim in a statement.

He labelled the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department’s statement yesterday in which Low said that there is no need to form the IPCMC as the Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC) already exists to receive complaints against the police, as “hypocritical and irresponsible”.

“This statement is hypocritical because Datuk Low had himself criticised the failure of the government to implement the IPCMC (in 2009),” argued Lim.

Low had stated that the family of death in custody victim N Dharmendran does not need to seek for the IPCMC to be instituted, but should bring their case to the EAIC instead.

The Penang CM pointed out that Low had once argued that the public needs to be confident of a clean police force which is free from external influences and that investigations are conducted fairly into all reports lodged to the police.

“Unfortunately, Low has now changed his tune and has apparently agreed to endorse the EAIC which has proven to be a colossal failure. This is not old wine in a new bottle but old wine in an old bottle,” he lamented.

Lim further accused Low of “quickly adapting to BN’s culture of lies” and breaking his promise of support for the IPCMC, arguing that the proposed police misconduct commission is a more potent mechanism then the EAIC.

The DAP secretary-general believes that the RM14 million sunk into the EAIC’s establishment from 2009 until 2012 is “a complete waste of public funds” as it has only two warnings and one disciplinary action to show for all that spending.

He quoted former Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad who questioned the EAIC’s effectiveness as out of 347 complaints received during that time, only 60 were directed for full investigation, but only three were fully investigated.

Regardless of Low’s current stand on the matter, Lim believes that the IPCMC is needed now more than ever with custodial death cases being on the rise.