Rights group Citizen Against Enforced Disappearances (Caged) has questioned if the Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) will help the police cover-up recent claims made by academic Ahmet T Kuru.
Caged spokesperson Rama Ramanathan (above) also questioned if IPCC chairperson Zolkopli Dahlan would demand that the Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain treat Kuru’s allegations with the seriousness it deserves.
“Will he press the IGP to investigate and publicly name the person in the photo with Kuru?
“Or will he do what he was designed to be; the chief cosmetician of the police?” he questioned.
Razarudin denied accusations that Kuru was approached and investigated by the police, adding that there was no intention to arrest him.
This was based on claims by Ahmet who said that he was close to an arrest at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Jan 10.
He claimed that before his flight to Lahore, India, he was approached by people who identified as police who had told him he was a “terrorist”.
Ahmet was initially scheduled to launch his book titled “Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison” at the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) Malaysia.
However, he claimed that IAIS withdrew as a co-host of the launch, allegedly due to pressures by conservatives and (the) Turkish ambassador”.
‘IPCC is a cover-up kit’
Rama said it was a norm for police to dismiss situations that implicate them.
“The brisk denial by the IGP of Kuru’s claims - without the depth of investigation which is warranted because Malaysia is a state of abductions and disappearances - simply proves the point that there is a need for independent oversight of the police.
“The so-called IPCC is a toothless, limbless creature which satisfies only the need of the police for tools to cover up its failures.
“The government of former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob designed the IPCC to be a cosmetics kit to cover up blemishes, deep failures, in the police force,” he said.
The IPCC was enforced last July after the Dewan Rakyat passed the IPCC Act 2020 in July 2022 by Ismail’s government.
It is a replacement for the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission Bill, which the Pakatan Harapan administration mooted in 2019. - Mkini
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