COMMENT | Last week, the federal government tabled the Independent Police Complaints of Misconduct Commission Bill 2019. The bill proposes the setting up of the Independent Police Complaints of Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), an independent external oversight body of the police force.

The IPCMC was first mooted in 2005 by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police, headed by former Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Haji Abdullah.

The IPCMC was the core thrust of several recommendations of the Royal Commission, which also included those which would improve the welfare of the police force.

Civil society and the then opposition have long demanded the setting up of the IPCMC. Instead, Parliament enacted the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (“EAIC”) Act, a pale shadow of the IPCMC and an ineffective external body tasked to look into complaints against enforcement agencies.

Pakatan Harapan, in its election manifesto, had promised to set up the IPCMC and in Abdul Hamid Bador, we have an inspector-general of police who appears supportive of the IPCMC. Thus, more than a decade after the Royal Commission, the IPCMC bill is tabled in the Dewan Rakyat...