KUCHING, May 3: Promotions and selections of Inspector-General of Police (IGP) in the police force should be placed under the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) and not the Police Force Commission (PFC) that is of unequal race composition.
This is the view of Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan when he said PSC should be empowered to decide on the suitability of candidates for IGPs as he found PFC to be without Indian, Dayak, Kadazan or Chinese committee members at the moment.
Doubtful whether there are Sarawakians or Sabahans in PFC, he said this is against the spirit of equal partnership and fairness which Malaysia was founded on.
With PFC holding wide powers concerning the appointment, confirmation, emplacement on the permanent or pensionable establishment, promotion, transfer and exercise of disciplinary control over members of the police force, he opined that the Home Minister and politicians should not be involved with PFC.
“This is because they can easily interfere or exercise influence on how the police force is run or managed in combatting crime and enforcement of law and order, and their presence on the Commission would give pressure to police officers whose promotion and confirmation of rank, emplacement and transfer are at the mercy of the members of the Commission,” he said in a statement today.
Thus, he urged for the restructure of PFC’s composition which is currently headed by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin.
Voon also suggested the establishment of a Police Complaints Commission (PCC) to investigate all improprieties or misconduct of all police officers with power to take disciplinary actions and to prosecute the offenders in court.
He added that the PCC’s responsibility should be also inclusive of investigating and prosecuting police officers for misconduct in connection of arrests, the mistreatment of detainees, and improper use of weapons and failure to entertain victims or investigate crimes reported for investigation.
He was responding to a previous statement by IGP Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador who claimed that there is massive corruption inefficiency and abuse of power in Malaysia, and the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) being the most important law enforcement agency needs a complete overhaul. — DayakDaily
