Govt to replace IPCMC Bill with ‘slightly different’ law next week

The government will retract the Independent Police Complaints of Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill 2019 next week and replace it with a new law.

The Pakatan Harapan-era bill was originally slated to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Aug 26.

According to Malay Mail, however, de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan said the bill will instead be retracted on that day and replaced with a new bill with a different name and “have a slightly different function”.

“August 26 we will retract it, and on August 26 itself we will table the new bill,” he was quoted as saying, adding that the cabinet has already approved the new bill.

Takiyuddin said the government had agreed to retract the IPCMC Bill because the police objected to its contents.

The IPCMC Bill was tabled for its first reading in the Dewan Rakyat in July last year but was subsequently referred to a special select committee for discussion when it came up for second reading last October.

The bill calls for the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission to be rebranded and enhanced with greater powers to investigate alleged misconduct by the police personnel, including to impose disciplinary action.

However, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin had previously said the IPCMC Bill would be replaced with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) Bill in order to be fair to the police.

The IPCMC Bill has also met opposition from the current crop of government backbenchers, who described it as persecution against the police.

However, the human rights group Suaram had opposed the new bill, saying that IPCC Bill’s stipulation to place the agency under the Home Ministry’s purview is “absurd and unacceptable”.

“The fact that IPCMC was recommended in the first place reflects the complete and total failure in governance on the part of the Home Ministry.

“Placing IPCMC under the Home Ministry will only compound the existing failure of the ministry and defeat the whole purpose of IPCMC,” it said in an Aug 11 statement.  - Mkini