pywong
6th June 2012, 12:17 PM
170 complaints in 1 year. Spend RM 7 million! That's RM 40,000 per complaint! Do we need them?
1 item they cannot do properly. Yet they want to handle 8 items.
First they complain they are understaffed, so they cannot cover everything. Next they insist that the scope they have to cover is fine, although originally, the public wanted the IPCMC. It's clear that the EAIC is intended not to perform through too wide a scope and under-budgetting. Leaving that aside, it's clear this body is incompetent and should be put to pasture. We need the IPCMC!
http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/484/786965e93f97ecee15164e7388d34b82.jpg
People don't trust us, laments EAIC
S Pathmawathy and Nicholas Wong
9:53AM Jun 6, 2012
http://malaysiakini.com/news/200017
In the past few years, calls for stern action against abuses by enforcement officers have heightened as their offences appear to go unpunished.
But the statutory body entrusted with the mandate to act on these offences has yet to receive such complaints.
The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC), which came into force in April last year, said that while the bulk of complaints it received were on the police, none were however on the hot-button issue of abuse of power.
http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/484/12bbaaa29c4df771b15c907de2ac8a5b.jpgEAIC chief executive officer (CEO) Nor Afizah Hanum Mokhtar said that proponents of human rights are aware of EAIC's existence but fail to bring such concerns to the commission.
When asked why the commission has not taken action in face of many allegations on police abuses, she said:
"To say that people do not know of us is not quite true. We have held discussions, debates, and seminars, even with members of the public. And we have had discussions where representatives of the Bar Council and NGOs were present. They know we exist."
Nor Afizah revealed that the commission has not received a single complaint regarding police brutality in the two Bersih rallies - Bersih 2.0 on July 9, 2011, and Bersih 3.0 on April 28.
"You know we exist, the Bar Council knows we exist, those who tell the media that someone was beaten to get a confession also know we exist - so complaint lah."
"We want to act, but we need to have the complaint to act - that is one of the problems we face. People just don't trust us.
"And why do they go to Suhakam (Human Rights Commission)? It's because as lawyers always say, anything can be about human rights.
"If you cannot win under any branch of the law - civil, criminal, constitutional - you go under human rights. Human rights is very wide. So Suhakam is the best," said Nor Afizah, who is a former judge.
EAIC can't reject complaints
After the stringent opposition to the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) from the police force, the government abandoned its original proposal and instead mooted the EAIC in 2009 - a body to investigate misconduct of all government enforcement agencies, not just the police.
The IPCMC was the most important of the 125 recommendations made by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police, established in 2004.
Despite overwhelming support for the IPCMC from the civil society, its implementation came to halt in 2006 after the police force dig in their heels and subsequently held the government to ransom by threatening to let crime rise and to vote for the opposition.
http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/472/52674c35005c6b5a6834c6aa08f560ad.jpg"So if you are saying that people are not complaining to us, there are a lot of lawyers in the Bar Council who should be bringing the cases to us," said the former deputy public prosecutor, who had also served as a Sessions Court judge.
There is no excuse, she argued, given that the EAIC does not reject any complaint until all grouses are ascertained and investigated.
Although the commission can commence its own investigations without the complaints, Nor Afizah Hanum insists that the right way to do it would be for the aggrieved individual to come forward.
"If it's reported in the media, the reporters can tell that person about us. Educating people is not the work of teachers only.
"If they can't come to Putrajaya, we will go to them. We have done that - there is a phrase ‘if the mountain will not come to Muhammad, Muhammad will go to the mountain'."
She explained that the commission could not initiate its own investigation because it lacks human resources.
"The commission is allocated RM7 million per annum and we have only 26 staff," she said.
One year on, 170 complaints received
With a broader focus which covers 19 agencies, unlike the proposed IPCMC which zooms in on the police, the EAIC is empowered to receive complaints, conduct investigations, hold hearings and make recommendations to the relevant authorities.
Besides the police force, some of the other enforcement units on the EAIC radar are the National Anti-Drugs Agency, voluntary corps Rela, Immigration Department, Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board, Customs Department and National Registration Department.
http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/484/4f03cb2d58e9a20ecf92c135c0b3a8b3.gifAs of last week, a total of 170 complaints were made through email, letter and by phone using EAIC's hotline, said Nor Afizah.
"Some people ask us why so many agencies when the idea started out as just for the police. But the bulk of the complaints are on the police still. We are not adversely affected that there are other agencies under our purview."
At present, the commission is bogged down by a variety of grouses that are mostly of a bureaucratic nature or those out of their jurisdiction.
The complaints, according to Nor Afizah, vary from the speed of action taken when a police report is lodged to officers asking for bribes over traffic offences.
She said 24 cases that were beyond the commission's scope of work were rejected, nine were referred to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and 13 to the police disciplinary body.
For the rest of the complaints, two were referred to the MACC and the police, 16 are under full probe, while 93 are still under preliminary investigation.
Tomorrow: ‘We can even investigate the IGP'
1 item they cannot do properly. Yet they want to handle 8 items.
First they complain they are understaffed, so they cannot cover everything. Next they insist that the scope they have to cover is fine, although originally, the public wanted the IPCMC. It's clear that the EAIC is intended not to perform through too wide a scope and under-budgetting. Leaving that aside, it's clear this body is incompetent and should be put to pasture. We need the IPCMC!
http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/484/786965e93f97ecee15164e7388d34b82.jpg
People don't trust us, laments EAIC
S Pathmawathy and Nicholas Wong
9:53AM Jun 6, 2012
http://malaysiakini.com/news/200017
In the past few years, calls for stern action against abuses by enforcement officers have heightened as their offences appear to go unpunished.
But the statutory body entrusted with the mandate to act on these offences has yet to receive such complaints.
The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC), which came into force in April last year, said that while the bulk of complaints it received were on the police, none were however on the hot-button issue of abuse of power.
http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/484/12bbaaa29c4df771b15c907de2ac8a5b.jpgEAIC chief executive officer (CEO) Nor Afizah Hanum Mokhtar said that proponents of human rights are aware of EAIC's existence but fail to bring such concerns to the commission.
When asked why the commission has not taken action in face of many allegations on police abuses, she said:
"To say that people do not know of us is not quite true. We have held discussions, debates, and seminars, even with members of the public. And we have had discussions where representatives of the Bar Council and NGOs were present. They know we exist."
Nor Afizah revealed that the commission has not received a single complaint regarding police brutality in the two Bersih rallies - Bersih 2.0 on July 9, 2011, and Bersih 3.0 on April 28.
"You know we exist, the Bar Council knows we exist, those who tell the media that someone was beaten to get a confession also know we exist - so complaint lah."
"We want to act, but we need to have the complaint to act - that is one of the problems we face. People just don't trust us.
"And why do they go to Suhakam (Human Rights Commission)? It's because as lawyers always say, anything can be about human rights.
"If you cannot win under any branch of the law - civil, criminal, constitutional - you go under human rights. Human rights is very wide. So Suhakam is the best," said Nor Afizah, who is a former judge.
EAIC can't reject complaints
After the stringent opposition to the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) from the police force, the government abandoned its original proposal and instead mooted the EAIC in 2009 - a body to investigate misconduct of all government enforcement agencies, not just the police.
The IPCMC was the most important of the 125 recommendations made by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police, established in 2004.
Despite overwhelming support for the IPCMC from the civil society, its implementation came to halt in 2006 after the police force dig in their heels and subsequently held the government to ransom by threatening to let crime rise and to vote for the opposition.
http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/472/52674c35005c6b5a6834c6aa08f560ad.jpg"So if you are saying that people are not complaining to us, there are a lot of lawyers in the Bar Council who should be bringing the cases to us," said the former deputy public prosecutor, who had also served as a Sessions Court judge.
There is no excuse, she argued, given that the EAIC does not reject any complaint until all grouses are ascertained and investigated.
Although the commission can commence its own investigations without the complaints, Nor Afizah Hanum insists that the right way to do it would be for the aggrieved individual to come forward.
"If it's reported in the media, the reporters can tell that person about us. Educating people is not the work of teachers only.
"If they can't come to Putrajaya, we will go to them. We have done that - there is a phrase ‘if the mountain will not come to Muhammad, Muhammad will go to the mountain'."
She explained that the commission could not initiate its own investigation because it lacks human resources.
"The commission is allocated RM7 million per annum and we have only 26 staff," she said.
One year on, 170 complaints received
With a broader focus which covers 19 agencies, unlike the proposed IPCMC which zooms in on the police, the EAIC is empowered to receive complaints, conduct investigations, hold hearings and make recommendations to the relevant authorities.
Besides the police force, some of the other enforcement units on the EAIC radar are the National Anti-Drugs Agency, voluntary corps Rela, Immigration Department, Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board, Customs Department and National Registration Department.
http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/484/4f03cb2d58e9a20ecf92c135c0b3a8b3.gifAs of last week, a total of 170 complaints were made through email, letter and by phone using EAIC's hotline, said Nor Afizah.
"Some people ask us why so many agencies when the idea started out as just for the police. But the bulk of the complaints are on the police still. We are not adversely affected that there are other agencies under our purview."
At present, the commission is bogged down by a variety of grouses that are mostly of a bureaucratic nature or those out of their jurisdiction.
The complaints, according to Nor Afizah, vary from the speed of action taken when a police report is lodged to officers asking for bribes over traffic offences.
She said 24 cases that were beyond the commission's scope of work were rejected, nine were referred to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and 13 to the police disciplinary body.
For the rest of the complaints, two were referred to the MACC and the police, 16 are under full probe, while 93 are still under preliminary investigation.
Tomorrow: ‘We can even investigate the IGP'