PM on plans to check conduct of police force
By SA'ODAH ELIAS and SYED AZHAR
January 25, 2006
The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: A permanent independent panel to monitor the conduct of the police force will be set up as soon as possible, the Prime Minister announced. 

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that one of the main functions of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission would be to review public complaints involving police actions. 

The special panel is being set up as recommended by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police. 

The Prime Minister said the Attorney-General’s chambers has been directed to study the draft Bill on setting up the commission as outlined by the Royal Commission in its report which was made public in May last year. 

“We want the independent commission to be set up as soon as possible, once the A-G’s chambers has presented its legal views. We would also want to consider other views,” he told reporters after chairing the Umno supreme council meeting yesterday. 

“Our intention is for the commission to also consider public complaints. But members of the public, please make sure that your complaints are based on facts and don’t make baseless accusations. 

He said the name and structure of the proposed commission would be announced later. 

Abdullah, who is Umno president, said the decision to set up the commission was made at the inter-ministerial meeting on the implementation of the Royal Commission’s recommendations chaired by him in the morning. 

He said that to date about 80% of the commission’s recommendations have or were in the process of being implemented while the rest were under active review and would take a little more time to be put into place. 

“Some of the recommendations can be implemented within a short period of time, others will take a long-term plan, but overall, all the recommendations can be fulfilled within a year. 

The Prime Minister said he had also directed the police to make periodical announcements on the implementations of the Royal Commission’s recommendations so that the public would be kept up to date on the progress. 

On the findings of the independent commission probing the nude ear squat incident, Abdullah said: “The findings do not implicate the whole police force as having failed to respect human rights, but that only some members of the force who had not done so while carrying out their duties. The police as an agency is not anti-human rights.” 

Internal Security Ministry deputy secretary-general (Special Duties) Datuk Hamzah Md Rus said Abdullah chaired the second meeting of the working committee on implementing the recommendations on enhancing the operations of the police force yesterday. 

The meeting was briefed on the implementation status of 125 recommendations made by the Special Commission, he said in a statement yesterday.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/1/25/nation/13213004&sec=nation