The Parliament’s Human Rights Caucus invited the Royal Police Commissioners for a dialogue lunch with MPs at Parliament today.

Before the function, I asked Datuk Nazri whether the lunch is a farewell lunch for our Royal Commissioners in view of the objection to the formation of the IPCMC.

UMNO MPs who are not normally interested in the affairs of the Caucus, came in full force with the intention to bash our Royal Commissioners. There were not enough seats and two additional tables were set up hurriedly to accomodate all the MPs.

The Royal Commissioners were led by Tun Mohamed Haniff and others who came included Dato Kadir Jasin, Ivy Josiah, Dr Denison Jayasooria and Dato Micheal Yeoh (ASLI).

Tun Haniff gave a short address on the job of the Royal Commission and why IPCMC was proposed to be established.Kadir followed by recounting his few encounters with Pak Lah on the formation of the Royal Commission.

When the session was opened for questions from the floor, the infamous MP for Jerai came out to make remarks in support of the police and he took the Royal Commission to task for targeting the police and further questioned whether the Commission was professional enough in discharging their duties. He even asked what Tun Haniff had done during his tenure as the IGP.

In an immediate response, Tun Haniff said “what is there to be done when there was no problem then, when I was the IGP a discliplinary committe was set up but when I resigned, my successors did not continued with the internal control mechanism. That’s why we need the IPCMC so that it would become a permanent feature to check on the police…”

Dr Denison (MIC) then refuted Jerai’s suggestion that the Commission did not do a professional job. Dr Denison went on a lecture on the methodology and the feedbacks from the public and the field trips toAustralia, New Zealand, England and Hong Kong and his remark was reassuring that the IPCMC is for the good of the country.

Next UMNO MP for Jasin echoed Jerai’s opposition to the IPCMC. He asked why the police was targetted when in actual fact, agencies like JPJ, Immigration and Custom were found to be more prone to corrupt practices. He asserted that the powers of Parliament would be usurped and why should all the 125 recommendations of the Royal Commission be accepted in total.

Kadir said earlier that the Commission’s report would be damning. His reply was equally damning. He said it is up to Parliament to legislate the IPCMC and questioned why should MPs give away their powers to legislate on the IPCMC to check on the police.

Ivy Josiah then made a damning concluding remarks on behalf of the Royal Commissioners. “We are not only targetting the police, we agree that other departments have their share of problems, but our mandate is to look into the police force. Furthermore the police is the most important agency, it even look after other agencies and have the power to put away people for a few years..”

Other MPs who spoke included Dr Tan Seng Giaw and Dato Halim from the Opposition, who spoke for IPCMC and Ombudsman. The suspended UMNO MP for Kota Baru Zaid Ibrahim also called for more openness to the Royal Commission’s recommendations.

At the end of the luncheon, I felt the Royal Commissioners have done a good job demolishing the arguments of the vocal objections of UMNO MPs.

Kadir said earlier that he had asked the Prime Minister whether the latter was serious in reforming the police and Pak Lah replied firmly : “I am serious”.

I really hope so. Please give him the strength to do what is good for the country.