Several guests attending today's launch of an Amnesty International (AI) report on human rights-based policing took issue with what they saw as a lack of consultation prior to recommending improvements to policing framework in Malaysia.

Ramon Navaratnam, a human rights commissioner, asked if AI had consulted the Royal Malaysian Police for feedback before drawing up the recommendations on the external and internal policing and disciplinary mechanisms.

Qualifying the comments as a personal view made for constructive purposes, he said it would have been better for AI to have obtained feedback from the police due to the subject matter.

"Did you consult the police before releasing this report or get their feedback on the allegations contained therein? Your report may not enjoy public confidence," he said after the brief introduction to the 71-page document .

"Your report would have been more credible had you done that. It would also have helped to ensure that no inaccuracies, inconsistencies or mistakes are present," he added.

Ramon, a member of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) and a prominent former civil servant, also suggested that AI has been remiss in terms of propriety by releasing the report without police input.

Meeting with police

AI Asia-Pacific programme researcher Timothy Parritt gave a summary briefing of the report which calls for institutional reform on human rights-based policing . Assisting him was AI Malaysia acting director Josef Roy Benedict.

Responding to Ramon's remarks, Parritt said a copy of the report was given on April 1 to the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman in a meeting with the Deputy Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan.

"In fact, we were pleasantly surprised with the seniority of officers who were present to meet us, including both the directors of Special Branch and Criminal Investigation Department.

"The point here is, we were not expecting any immediate rebuttal from the police as this report was submitted to the Special Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police," he explained.

"We only wanted to present the police with a copy before releasing the report based on our priority to engage them in line with AI's vision of seeing the police as human rights protectors and not violators."

Parritt said AI saw the weakness in the structural safeguards and seized the opportunity to collate all the complaints in order to produce an analysis for institutional reform for policing in Malaysia.

"We stand by the accuracy of our report and wish to state that the tone of the report is to engage the police based on international standards and principles."

Based on the general perception as relayed by local non-governmental organisations, human rights watchdogs and social activists, he said the impression was AI would not be welcomed by the government.

"We tried anyway and sent letters seeking appointments with several cabinet ministers, Suhakam, the special police commission,

"In the end, we met Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, who chairs the Parliament Human Rights Caucus.

"We also requested for an appointment with Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar and de facto law minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad but did not get to meet them."

Besides the special police commission, Parritt said a copy was also handed over to Suhakam law reform and international treaties working group chairperson KC Vohrah.

'Extraordinary period'

Two senior officers from the IGP secretariat also noted that it was unfair not to have sought their feedback as "most of the allegations contained in the report" had occurred during "an extraordinary period" in the country.

Assistant chief of staff Mohamed Darus Mahmud, echoing Ramon's views, regretted AI's move to publish the report before the police had the chance to rebut the allegations.

"One week is too short a time to rebut anything, what more a report of this nature. But let me assure you that the IGP is serious about human rights matters.

"He has taken a serious view of the report and a rebuttal is being prepared. Once it is completed, we will send it to AI."

On whether the counter-arguments will be made public, Darus said that will have to be discussed further.

He also insisted that a lot of changes have taken place since 1998, the year cited in the AI report as the beginning of serious human rights violations.

"Many things in the report are inaccurate because improvements have been made since then. So, this is not a true representation of the present scenario involving the police."

That was a time when Malaysian took to the streets to protest the sacking of then deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim where demonstrators bore the full brunt of police action and riot squads using excessive force.

Parritt said the report was still open for feedback and criticism, and that AI was more than happy to engage the police in the future.

Also present was former New Straits Times group editor-in-chief A Kadir Jasin, who is serving as a member of the special police commission.