Social media posts, not police reports, get quick response, says MP

 

Social media users believe that the authorities are slow in responding to public complaints, according to a DAP MP.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian netizens tend to viral any issue on social media because they believe that doing so is more effective than lodging a police report, an opposition MP said.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said social media users also believed that the authorities were slow in responding to public complaints.

He was commenting on concerns raised by Bukit Aman’s integrity and standards compliance department (JIPS) director Azri Ahmad earlier today that netizens preferred to shame people on social media rather than lodge reports.

According to Azri, sharing issues on social media before an investigation could be carried out encouraged netizens to make judgments without looking at the facts of a case.

Santiago also took JIPS to task over its handling of custodial deaths, which he said had eroded public trust in the police force.

“There have been many demands on social media for inquests to be conducted on custodial deaths.

“So far, 13 people have died while under police custody this year alone, but there is no mention of any inquest being carried out.

“JIPS will just report that someone has died at a particular police station and that he had been arrested for drug offences, and so on. This does not create confidence among those who go to social media for information,” he said.

Santiago called upon JIPS to “buck up” and inform the public on inquests carried out on custodial death cases to restore public confidence.

On March 23, FMT reported the 13th custodial death, which took place in Penang. This involved a 59-year-old man who had been arrested for an alleged drug offence.

Santiago also said that netizens did not trust mainstream media and the authorities, saying much of what they put out “is mostly propaganda”.

Activist Rama Ramanathan of Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (Caged) said netizens’ actions were a consequence of the rejection by police of the proposed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) in 2005 and their support instead for the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) Bill.

The IPPC bill has been described by civil society groups as being ineffective in holding police officers accountable for any misconduct.

“In the eyes of the public, PDRM’s (police) objection to IPCMC and providing strong support for IPCC show that they are blind and incompetent.

“The police must also be aware of the severe damage they have done to themselves by failing to take seriously Suhakam’s findings on the investigative failures in the disappearances of Amri Che Mat and Raymond Koh,” he told FMT, referring to several cases of enforced disappearance of several people.

Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) executive director Sevan Doraisamy, on the other hand, called upon people to come forward and make reports on any wrongdoings or illegal activities.

He also said the Whistleblower Protection Act must be improved in order to ensure that it really protected those who exposed wrongdoings. - FMT