KUALA LUMPUR: Police are the enforcers of the law, and have never considered themselves to be above the law, said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar .
Khalid was responding to remarks made by former Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah during his speech at the Public Forum - Rogue Cops: Workable Soulitions - Police Accountability in Malaysia on May 28 which was jointly organised by the Malaysian Bar and National Human Rights Society.
The speech, which were regarded as ‘off the mark’ claimed the institution seems to thinks itself to be above the law.
“We view ourselves as mere enforcers of the law, who are at the same time, subject to the same law. We do not deny the existence of a handful of black sheeps who flout the law whilst enforcing it but they form only a minuscule portion of the police force, and cannot be termed as ‘institutional’,” Khalid said in a statement today.
He further clarified that the force does not condone the abuse of power by their personnel by building the ‘blue wall of silence’, as claimed by Dzaiddin.
“To charge that we practise the unwritten rule of the ‘blue wall of silence’ in protecting our own kind is preposterous. We took the initiative to create the Integrity and Standard Compliance Department (ISCD) to strictly monitor any form of misdemeanour or abuse of powers among our men,” he said adding that before the set up of ISCD, police have always been internally monitored by their Disciplinary Branch.
Khalid said police have also been judged harshly by Dzaiddin when he said that the current attitude with police towards the rule of law is one of indifference, with a patent of disregard for basic human rights.
“He attributed these negativity to a lack of emphasis upon respect for the rule of law or the sanctity of human rights during training stage.
“Our training modules provide for the basic understanding of human rights and fundamental rights as enshrined in the Federal Constitution which are amplified by lecturers from Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) and the International Islamic University,” he said.
Suhakam, said Khalid, had audited their training modules and the University of Derby, United Kingdom has also approved the module to be worthy of accreditation.
On the amount of custodial deaths Dzaiddin claimed in Malaysia, 242 people died in police custody between 2000 and 2014
Khalid however said during the four-year period, only a total of 51 cases of death in police custody were investigated and four policemen were charged in court in connection with the death of N. Dhamenderan in 2013.
Dhamenderan post-mortem revealed his cause of death was diffuse soft tissue injuries due to multiple blunt force trauma, which led doctors to believe he was kneeling or sitting in a low position, and handcuffed when he was allegedly beaten.
In a statistic revealed yesterday, 33 convicts died due to various medical conditions, eight due to heart attack, eight for committing suicide by hanging themselves, one due to HIV and one case linked to policemen.
Khalid added while some officers abuse their power, majority of his men were ‘good cops’.
“For every officers who visits harm on someone or violates the public’s trust, there are countless others who follow the rules and want nothing more than to protect, serve and return home safe at the end of their shift,” he said.
Khalid added police welcome efforts from any quarter to improve but criticism that generalise them as an organisation that is lacking in integrity and honour might stigmatised the police as corrupt institution.
Dzaiddin was speaking as he renewed his call for the setting up of Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) which he mooted a decade ago.