By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Oct 4: Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen disclosed that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government will be tabling the Independent Police Complaint and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill in the upcoming parliamentary session.
Describing it as one of the major reforms of PH, Chong said the proposal to set up IPCMC came out in 2004 by the Royal Commission that was formed to study on how to improve the police standard as well as their welfare.
“However, the past administration did not have the political will to form this commission. It’s only after we PH formed the government that the Bill to set up this independent commission will be tabled for such a commission to form,” he emphasised.
“We are glad that the IGP is fully supportive of the setting up of the IPCMC,” he told a press conference held at Sarawak DAP headquarters today.
Chong, who is also Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, pointed out that without the IPCMC, the only channel to complaint about police abuse was still the police.
“So there is no element of independence in the whole investigation,” he said.
“So after many years, the general public is not so confident to lodge complaint against any police abuse and that is why it is important for us to set up this committee to make the police force more professional and improve their standards of enforcement. That is the whole purpose,” he added.
Meanwhile, he informed that the federal government has doubled its allocations for the Chinese schools for 2019.
These schools included Chinese primary schools, national-type secondary schools and Chinese Independence secondary schools.
Chong, who is also PH Sarawak chairman, said a total of RM50 million has been allocated for the maintenance of Chinese primary schools.
“Out of the RM50 million, we (Sarawak) have got about RM10 million. It is about 20 per cent of the Chinese primary schools’ allocation,” he explained.
He added that the PH government also allocated RM15 million for national-type secondary schools across the country.
“Previously, there was no such allocation but PH government has made a special provision for that and it is RM15 million, out of which Sarawak got RM1.7 million,” he elaborated.
Chong, who is Kota Sentosa assemblyman, also announced that for this year, there was also an allocation of RM12 million for all 60 Chinese Independence schools in the country.
“So basically, this is the general policy of PH to have a more diverse education policy. Not only that we adopt a more diverse education policy, we also take into consideration the regional disparity. The disbursement of the allocation is fast and more consistent,” he said.
He also expressed confidence that there will be more allocations for Chinese schools in the Budget 2020 which will be tabled in upcoming parliamentary session to commence next week.— DayakDaily
