PETALING JAYA, June 3: Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will bring up the motion for the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) during the Parliament session on June 24.
DAP Parliamentary Chief, Lim Kit Siang said that Pakatan hopes that the motion will receive support from Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament as some of the allegedly support the proposal.
This is because the commission has previously been proposed during the administration of former Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, for being important in addressing police misconduct such as custodial death.
He explained that Pakatan has set up a committee for this purpose, comprising of two Members of Parliament from every party of the coalition.
“We need the support of a simple majority in Parliament, which is 112 for the approval of this independent commission. We already have 89 MPs from PKR, thus we now need at least 23 more for this purpose.
“We hope that six PR Members of Parliament in the committee will work towards receiving support from BN Members of Parliament to establish the IPCMC,” he said in a press conference today.
Lim said that information obtained states that BN component parties such as MIC and MCA also support the proposal for the establishment of the IPCMC.
According to him, BN members of Parliament who are concerned in the matter must express their support so the incidences of custodial deaths do not happen again.
PKR De Facto Leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also expressed his regret over the latest custodial death involving victim, N Dharmendran, 32.
“We oppose vehemently because it had been objected repeatedly since Kugan’s case but it has continued to happen.
“Therefore, we must continue our urges for the IPCMC..At the same time, we want the Minister of Home Affairs to not give excuses…But for transparent investigation and immediate action to stop all forms of crime against the accused,” he said.
Dharmendran was held at the Kuala Lumpur Contingent Police Headquarters when he appeared to make a report about a shootout in Bandar Tun Razak on 11 May.
The victim’s lawyer, N Surendran claimed that the autopsy report by a forensic expert at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital concluded that Dharmendran died after being hit by a blunt object repeatedly.