DAP has called on the government to set up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) as confidence in the police force erodes with each death in custody.

 

DAP national vice chairperson M Kulasegaran said today that the death of 26 year old S Naidu Agin Raj, the seventh custodial death in Penang alone so far this year, was a loss that could be avoided if only the government had heeded a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the police which recommended the IPCMC back in 2005.

"Scores of lives could have been saved if the recommended IPCMC had been set up and working," Kulasegaran, the MP for Ipoh Barat, said in a press statement.

 

Kulasegaran also took Inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar to task, alleging he had a lackadaisical attitude towards people who are dying while under police care - mostly the poorest of the poor.

 

He noted that IGP Khalid had deferred the duty to watch over his own subordinates to the Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC), which he alleged was a body with "lame-duck status."

 

The EAIC announced on June 5, 2013 that it had set up its own eight-man taskforce to investigate the deaths of two previous custodial deaths - N Dharmendran on May 21 in Kuala Lumpur and James Ramesh on May 26 in Penang - with the aim being to revise the standard operating procedures (SOP) used by the police to manage detainees.

 

Kulasegaran said this has apparently failed, as deaths in police lock-ups continues to pile up.

 

"Who is at fault when there is now the perception that no one is safe, even if one is in the custody of the police?

 

"A citizen feels he may not return alive if detained by the police. Custodial deaths are preventable if there is openness and accountability by the police.

The government’s failure to enact the IPCMC erodes the confidence of the public in our police force and leads to more loss of lives. There can be no more excuses not to implement the IPCMC," Kulasegaran asserted.