Human Rights Groups Slam Police Abuse And Corruption

Malaysian human rights groups said Friday that police abuse and corruption in the country have not stopped despite an independent commission's recommendations for sweeping changes, Channel Newsasia reports.

"Human rights continue to deteriorate," Yap Swee Seng, executive director of local organization Suaram, said at a meeting of human rights groups. "The culture of impunity is growing."

National police chief Inspector General Musa Hassan could not be immediately reached for comment. His mobile phone was switched off.

A royal commission, set up in 2004, made 125 recommendations for changes in the police force to reduce crime, stop corruption and observe human rights.

Last year, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that 81 recommendations had been implemented, 19 more would be implemented and 25 were still being studied. But Suaram and Amnesty International Malaysia said few of the recommendations on human rights have been implemented. The implementation of the others has been unsatisfactory, they said.

"Unfortunately, until today no details of what has been implemented has been made public," said Josef Roy Benedict, executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia.

The groups said changes, if any, had been superficial and cosmetic, and an independent commission to investigate alleged police misconduct — one of the most important recommendations — had still not been set up.

Yap said recommendations pertaining to freedom of assembly had also not been carried out, citing cases of police brutality during peaceful demonstrations as an example.

He said people were still detained without trial under the country's Internal Security Act, Dangerous Drugs Act and Emergency Ordinance. Once released, many were re-arrested.

No inquests at all have been made in six of nine cases where people died in police custody last year, Yap said, disregarding the recommendations, which call for an inquest into every case within one month.

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, who also joined the panel discussion, said politicians pointed fingers at each other instead of cracking down on police abuse and corruption.
"There is no political will. There is no responsibility. Our prime minister is on a perpetual, eternal honeymoon," Lim said, referring to Abdullah's recent remarriage.

But Denison Jayasooria of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia expressed cautious optimism. "The progress has been slow and in some cases extremely slow ... (But) The police tone has changed... There are changes. There is light, even if it's just twinkles."

****** Perhaps by the year 2057 our caring government would have implemented all the recommendations made in 2004. If we are lucky.