The IGP Dismisses The Suhakam Report

The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai, is head of a police force known more for breaking the law that maintaining it. So, when the officially-constititued Malaysian Human Rights Commission or Suhakam investigated human rights violations at an opposition rally last November in what is now known as the Kesah Highway incident, the police dug in and refused to co-operate. In so doing, it lost an opportunity to defend its turf. Instead, it dragged its feet, using every legal manouevre to wriggle out of stating what happened. Mark you, Suhakam is not your every day NGO with a bee in its bonnet to take the government to task. It is a body set up by Parliament with a panapoly of powers that other human rights bodies would drool over.

It also produces results. When Tan Sri Norian Mai's predecessor, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, brutally assaulted the just detained former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, he and the government stonewalled that he had, insisting that the extensive injuries on the handcuffed and bound man was "self-inflicted". It took a Suhakam investigation to force Tan Sri Rahim to admit he did, and he went to jail for that.

The police has not learnt its lesson. When Suhakam decided to investigate human rights abuses last November, the official agencies refused to co-operate. Especially the Police. So, the report is one-sided if only because the weight of evidence is only from one-side. Suhakam is bound to produce reports of every investigation, and it presented one on the evidence it adduced. The police actions reflect badly for the simple reason it did not explain its actions. It felt itself above the law and dismissed the Suhakam investigations. It pays for that neglect.

Tan Sri Norian now says the Report is biased. Of course it is. His police force was given a chance to make it less biased, and refused the opportunity. He further adds: "I didn't pay much attention to the report because it is biased and unrealistic". What he said, which Bernama quoted yesterday (29 August 01), reflects an unwarranted arrogance that one has come to expect from agencies of the government. Only the official version is right; if anyone dares challenge it, they are biased; it people are hurt, it is their fault; they have no right to exercise their constitutional right of free assembly.

It is not only Tan Norian Mai who is upset at the report. The Prime Minister thought the Suhakam Report was "influenced by Western thinking" in a tone which suggests Western norms of behaviour per se is reprehensible. It does not matter what the Prime Minister and the IGP thinks of the report. What matters is that the public at large have semi-official support for their belief that the Police cannot be relied upon to protect them. And the more confrontational the police and official agencies are to attempts by bodies like Suhakam to get them to take the middle path, the worse their reputations besmirched.

In two Reports, Suhakam has showed the police to be guilty of human rights violations. In neither could the Police could claim they were not given adequate opportunity to explain their actions. When it did in one, its IGP admitted he told a lie and had indeeded beated Dato' Seri Anwar to a pulp; in the second, it refused to co-operate and Suhakam found sufficient grounds to accuse it of human rights violations. That would not go away because the IGP thinks it is biased. In fact, it would put the Police even more on the defensive. What Tan Sri Norian Mai needs to do is to look for ways how the Police can get back into the public trust it once had. Until then, the police station is the last place the citizen would go to for help.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my