It was a desperate and urgent call for lawyers to re-think their priorities within their chosen vocation. A call for personal sacrifices. A call for justice.
This message and several stop-gap measures emerged out of a public forum on Citizens Rights and the Police’ chaired by Bar Council Yeoh Yang Poh in Kuala Lumpur late Thursday.
He said the forum was the first step towards eradicating police abuse and was timely given the huge public outrage following a series of reports on the nude ear-squat clip recently.
Focusing on lawyers, human rights advocate R Sivarasa said although the increased awareness was a good sign, more urgent measures and human resources were needed.
He said lawyers should identify what else they can do besides filing civil suits.
“Personally, I feel this is not the solution to the problem of police abuse. There must be structural changes to institutionalise the control over police abuse.
“The prevailing culture appears to be one of impunity,” he told the crowd of about 50 people who were mostly lawyers.
As a band-aid measure or constant fire-fighting, Sivarasa suggested that more lawyers voluntarily go to police stations to provide legal assistance to detainees, document abuses and highlight the worst cases.
“We need a lot more lawyers to spare some time and effort to meet the demand (for legal aid) because people are being abused in the country’s lock-ups even as we speak.”
Why programme failed
Lawyers, he said, should instead use the less-known and seldom-used complaints mechanism under Chapter 15 of the Criminal Procedure Code rather than focusing on filing civil suits.
“The real discipline in the force is by punishing the offending officer.”
In addition, he said, magistrates also need to be re-trained so that they understand better the implications of their remand orders on the suspects or police detainees.
He cited how a KL Legal Aid Centre programme to mobilise legal representation for remand prisoners four years ago had failed because there were not enough lawyers.
Sivarasa’s point was supported by activist Rajen Devaraj (right) who said the main problem was the “unwarranted remand orders” which put people in lock-ups for no good reason.
“The magistrates have little regard for fundamental liberties and are endorsing the tangkap dan siasat (arrest and investigate) attitude by granting remand orders too easily.
“Magistrates never ask if a remand order is necessary or if there is evidence linking the detainee with the crime. They never apply their mind to police’s requests.”
In his presentation, Rajen outlined the structural weakness in the system, citing the attitude of the courts and government, lack of access to legal representation, absence of an independent investigative body and lack of accountability.
“How many prosecutions have there been in the last 15 years? The figures clearly show that the response to allegations of abuse is to deny, obstruct and cover up.
“The police appear to have absolute immunity because no one is held accountable. Psychological and physical torture are routine, such as in the Internal Security Act.”
He said if the government must be prepared to divest some of its powers if it is serious about curbing police abuses.
Soul-searching
Responding to a suggestion to compile police abuse cases, Latheefa Koya said a lawyer’s presence at a station makes a bigger difference than collecting data “which eventually gathers dust”.
Her colleague Amer Hamzah Arshad urged lawyers to do some serious soul-searching and to respond in numbers if there is to be any real structural and procedural change.
Referring to lawyers’ reluctance to handle legal aid cases, he said there were still 57 unassigned cases.
Earlier, about 50-odd people mostly lawyers heard the testimonies of transsexual Mumtaz, G Sarah Lily, Norazimah Mohd Nor, teenager R Narayananan Prabu, and activists V Selvam and Hishamuddin Rais.
The two-and-a-half-hour session evoked tears of desperation and outbursts of anger from the victims as they recounted in graphic detail alleged abuses and brutalities while in custody.
Recounting in graphic detail his detention under the ISA, Hishamuddin said asking a detainee to strip was solely aimed at dehumanising and shame the person.
“Imagine someone else poking, prodding and fiddling with your (private parts), places you consider as the most personal space on your person.
“It’s a power-play, the first step towards breaking the spirit or will of the detainee.”
He also chided the middle-class and foreign-educated lawyers and public who expressed shock over recent reports of alleged police abuse, saying that such practices have been happening for decades.
Police brutality is real
“I’m shocked by the fact that many are shocked by such reports. These things happen daily, nightly in all police stations.
“Let’s not pretend. Let’s face it. Malaysia is a third-world country where police brutality is for real,” he said, echoing the structural weaknesses.
Hishamuddin said the nude-squat video clip has now turned into racial stereotyping which, he believed, strengthened the racial division in the country.
“This was clear when the Malay newspapers tried to spin the issue into saying that the person in the clip was not a Chinese woman.
“Why is it that we jump when foreigners are abused but do nothing when Malaysians are abused? How come the media does not jump when locals like Nora are brutalised?”
He said the police constable should not be blamed for following orders but it is the responsibility of the ranking officers and government to address the systemic shortcomings.
A mother of five, Norazimah, 30, told how she was ordered to do the squats 10 times after being detained for setting up a stall a day before the Kesas Highway mass rally in 2001.
“When I refused to strip, the police told me they would get the other detainees to beat me up. So, I had to take off my clothes in front of the others.”
Mumtaz related her ordeal of being openly humiliated when three policemen, rejecting her requests for a policewoman to be present, asked her to strip.
Sarah Lily, the mother of Francis Udayappan, the identity of whom is in dispute based on a body fished out from the Klang river, literally cried out for help.
“It’s been one year and eight months and they still won’t let me bury my son’s body. It is rotting away in the hospital mortuary,” she said in-between sobs.
In summing-up the session, Yeoh said more lawyers definitely need to offer their time and share the grave concern over the prevalence of police abuse cases.
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It was a desperate and urgent call for lawyers to re-think their priorities within their chosen vocation. A call for personal sacrifices. A call for justice.
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Circular No 106/2012: Accountant’s Report 2011
