The Fact Is, Mr Chor

(Mr Chor Chee Heung is the Deputy Minister for Home Affairs. Unsurprisingly, he gave the usual political answers when confronted in Parliament over the Bandar Mahkota Cheras incident in which according to media reports Chang Jiun Haur was assaulted and battered by FRU officers)


For goodness sake, Mr Chor, why does every answer have to be a political one.

The fact is a young man lies in the intensive care unit of a hospital. He was put there by some twenty police officers who beat him up. They say that he was trying to run them over but not a single police officer appears to have been injured. There is also a great deal of doubt as to whether the young man was trying to run over police officers, or anyone for that matter, or was simply trying to leave the scene, perhaps realizing his mistake for having stopped in the first place.

And the fact is that no amount of provocation short of a direct threat on life warranted a reprisal of this form by the police officers.

Perhaps, Mr Chor, you would care to remind yourself, and the Minister, that you are not the Inspector General of Police and as such, you are not directly responsible for the misconduct of police officers. Perhaps you would even care to remind yourself, and the Minister, that your ministry is responsible for determining fairly what it is that happened and to take steps to ensure that it does not happen again.

The fact is, Mr Chor, the Royal Malaysia Police is regrettably virtually synonymous with police brutality. I do not say this of my own accord, I am merely reiterating what it is a Royal Commission of Enquiry had come to conclude. You may recall that the Royal Commission had strongly recommended the establishment of an independent complaints and misconduct commission to address the kind of conduct that was making Malaysians lose faith in the police force. You may recall the proposed independent commission by its acronym, IPCMC, just as you may recall that your government has failed to establish the IPCMC despite promises that the recommendations of the Royal Commission would be given effect.

Incidentally, Mr Chor, you may also wish to remind yourself that one of the reasons that the Commission of Enquiry felt the need for the IPCMC was a seeming unwillingness on the part of the police force to investigate its own conduct. Were it otherwise, why would the Royal Commission have proposed a draft law for the IPCMC which declared, in its preamble:

“An Act to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission whose principle functions are to receive and investigate into complaints about the Royal Malaysia Police, to detect, investigate and prevent police corruption and other serious police misconduct, to set out the powers and functions of such Commission for improving police integrity, reducing misconduct and building public confidence and to ensure that there is vigilant oversight in Malaysia of the Royal Malaysia Police…”

It may also be useful to take note that the Royal Commission concluded in paragraph 2.6.8 of its report (page 53) that there was abuse of power on the part of some police personnel and that if those guilty of abusing their power were not punished, this problem would persist. There appears to have been no action taken, and if there was it was not publicized, in connection with the shootings at Pantai Batu Burok late last year, Bloody Sunday and the other very public instances of apparent police misconduct.

This puts paid to the suggestion on your part, Mr Chor, that the police force is capable of investigating the events at Bandar Mahkota Cheras fairly and professionally.

The fact is, Mr Chor, your Ministry is failing the rakyat grievously for failing to take meaningful steps to address this situation. Its continued inaction has resulted in Chang Jiun Haur being in hospital, the tears of his parents and family streaming into the river of tears of other parents, other families who have similarly suffered.

There are questions that need to be answered and action that has to be taken. We are primed however for no further action. In fact, Mr Chor, if the events of Pantai Batu Burok or the HINDRAF Batu Caves incident are anything to go by, we can reasonably expect Chang Jiun Haur to be charged in a court of law soon. Nothing surprises us anymore, your administration is capable of almost anything it would seem.

But then, Mr Chor, I suppose politics would make that an acceptable end for you. And you and your colleagues wonder why so many Malaysians are so sick of the Barisan Nasional?

MIS