KUALA LUMPUR: Police blame the NGOs for not following up on their complaints, but several of the groups say this is not always true and is a poor excuse for inaction.
“We do follow-up,” said Fadiah Fikri of Lawyers for Liberty.
“We send memorandums and once went public asking for progress reports. But they keep forgetting to update us, or they pass us from department to department when we call.”
She added that it was in any case not necessary for complainants to follow up on their reports since it was the police’s duty to investigate.
An officer at Bukit Aman claimed that none of the reports that were ignored fell under the “criminal case” category, but the Human Rights Party (HRP) said this was a lie.
“We’ve made hundreds of reports over deaths in custody, racial disharmony and so on,” said S Jayathas, HRP’s information chief.
“I feel that police action is based on who makes the report. If it were Umno or Perkasa, action would be taken immediately.”
Police sources denied this allegation.
“If it’s criminal in nature, we will definitely investigate,” said one source. “But if there are civil cases which do not merit police investigation, then we do not. Many groups lodge reports for the sake of it. They should seek advice before doing so.”
Describing the typical NGO complaint, the Bukit Aman officer said: “It’s lodged at some police station, gets classified and falls into some strange category because it’s not under the Penal Code.
“We review them on a case-by-case basis and some are thrown out because they are civil cases under specific acts, such as commercial crimes.
“Complainants should come back to check on the status of their cases, but they don’t.”
Yap Heng Lung, a coordinator at Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), complained that although the police would give cursory preliminary updates, they would not follow up despite promises to do so.
“When we ask them what’s happening, they make excuses like saying they are busy.”
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