'Will 23 BN MPs team with Pakatan on IPCMC Bill?'

A question has been thrown to BN parliamentarians whether they are prepared to back Pakatan Rakyat to pass a Bill for an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) in the first sitting of the new Parliament on June 24.

With 89 MPs from Pakatan, the support of only 23 more from the BN is required for a simple majority in Parliament to pass the IPCMC Bill into law, DAP national adviser Lim Kit Siang said today.

"MIC has called for the establishment of the IPCMC. Is this the official stand of the MIC and the four MIC MPs?

"If so, is it possible to get another 19 BN MPs to support the passage of an IPCMC Bill in the 13th Parliament?" Lim asked in a statement.

He said the matter would be discussed by Pakatan's leadership council tomorrow.

The IPCMC is an police oversight body first proposed by a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to improve the police force, which was held 2005.

However, the proposal was rejected by the police force, and later watered down to an Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC), which lacks prosecution powers.

In the RCI report, Lim said, it had noted that society could not rely on the internal mechanics of the police force and an oversight body would therefore be "profoundly important" in the organisation's governance.

"It will mark a quantum step forward in enhancing accountability and help restore and sustain the confidence of the people and the private sector in the Royal Malaysian Police," the report says.

‘Police cannot police themselves'
Pakatan's plan to push the IPCMC Bill despite lacking a majority in Parliament comes after another victim died in police custody yesterday, the third in 11 days.

MIC national treasurer Jaspal Singh had on May 31 called for the immediate setting up of the IPCMC, stating that "no party, in law enforcement or otherwise, can be expected to police itself".

MCA vice-president Gan Ping Sieu (left) when contacted yesterday also gave his backing for the setting up of IPCMC.

"I think the time has come that we should have an IPCMC because it is human nature. When you are within a system and have to take disciplinary action against your own colleagues, it can have a lot of psychological barriers," Gan said.

He said he would raise the matter with the MCA central leadership for its official stance. However, the MCA Youth itself has supported such a commission.
Gan acknowledged that there were reservations about the IPCMC because of concerns over frivolous complaints, but said this was technical in nature and a mechanism could be put in place to prevent such abuses.