KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 13 — Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail today announced that the Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) Act 2020 will be enforced in June next year.
The controversial IPCC Bill was tabled by Saifuddin Nasution’s predecessor Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin and passed in Parliament in July, replacing the earlier Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill proposed by the first Pakatan Harapan government.
“I was told by the Home Ministry secretary-general that the Act will be enforced in June next year,” Saifuddin Nasution told reporters after his first official visit to the national police headquarters in Bukit Aman here after his Cabinet appointment.
The decision to replace the IPCMC with the IPCC was made after the so-called “Sheraton Move” resulted in a change of government in 2020.
The IPCMC Bill had proposed that “the Commission may initiate investigations notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Act, the Commission may commence an investigation on its own initiative but only if the Commission is satisfied that the subject matter of the investigation is of significant interest to the public or that it is in the public interest to do so whether or not there is a complaint of misconduct relating to it”.
With the IPCC, however, all complaints to the commission following investigations by its members would then be submitted to a complaints committee.
The findings and recommendations by the complaints committee may either be forwarded to relevant agencies such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) or the commission could direct a task force to carry out further investigations.
Other recommendations removed under the IPCC include suggested disciplinary jurisdiction over any misconduct committed by any member of the police force and the powers to exercise disciplinary jurisdiction over any complaint concerning the misconduct of any member of the police force
Asked separately if the new government will review the Security and Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 or Sosma, Saifuddin defended the law by saying it allowed judicial oversight unlike other preventive detention laws such as the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the Emergency Ordinance.
“People always compare Sosma with other preventive laws when Sosma itself is not a preventive law.
“Compared to ISA or the Emergency Ordinance, (the detention period) is up to 60 days. Sosma is 28 days. At the end of 28 days, there are only two recommendations which are freedom or be brought to court. If he is brought to court, he can still hire a lawyer,” he said.
During the parliamentary meeting in March this year, Pakatan Harapan lawmakers who were then the Opposition had voted down the extension of the Sosma to deliver an embarrassing defeat to the Ismail Sabri administration.
The Sosma was extended when the Bill for its extension was tabled anew in July.
Saifuddin made his first official visit to the police headquarters today, where he and his deputy, Datuk Seri Shamsul Anuar Nasarah received a briefing from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah.
