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KUALA LUMPUR, Tues: Former Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad today appeared to have joined hundreds of others in signing the Bar Council's Petition on Movement Towards A Better Police Force. He was listed as signatory no. 813. However, it is not possible to ascertain if it was indeed signed by Tun Mahathir.

At the time of filing this report, the petition has registered more than 950 signatures since it was launched Saturday April 8.

Malaysian Bar President, Yeo Yang Poh said he hoped many Malaysians would sign, and encourage as many of their friends, relatives and colleagues as possible to do likewise, in support of the petition which calls for the establishment of the Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

The Malaysiakini reports that the nationwide campaign launched Friday is timed to counter the growing resistance to the IPCMC by the top brass in the police force and some Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers.

The proposal for the IPCMC is the most contentious of the 125 recommendations made by a Royal commission of inquiry last year.

The commission had stipulated May 31 as the deadline for implementation.

Advocates of the IPCMC are hoping that the draft law will be passed by May 11 when the current parliamentary meeting is scheduled to end.

Considered the “most crucial” recommendation, the IPCMC has been the subject of intense public debate following reported allegations of police abuse and assault in recent years.

But the police and a number of backbenchers have openly objected to Prime Minister and Internal Security Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s decision to set up the body in light of mounting criticism against the police.

Open objections

Detractors claim the IPCMC will further demoralise and discriminate against police personnel, and that it overlaps with existing human rights watchdog and public complaints mechanisms.

At the launch, Yeo said the fact that two commissions of inquiry have repeated the need for an independent police watchdog spoke “volumes of its importance” of institutional reform.

“An IPCMC is an essential part of the much-needed reform,” he said.

Insisting on a reduced reliance on the existing internal mechanism, he said the old way of checking abuse was a method proven to be “both unreliable and ineffective, not to mention non-transparent and ill-accountable”.

He also decried the opposition within the police force and open attempts to lobby the parliamentarians against the IPCMC.

On Saturday, Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik reiterated the BN component party’s backing of the proposed establishment of the IPCMC.

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