Abu Kassim Mohamed, who served as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner from 2010 to 2016, said if the IPCMC had been put in place, it would have led to a clean police force.
“I’ll be blunt about the fears politicians had over the IPCMC. And the excuses they offered are woeful,” he said at a webinar organised by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) last night.
Kassim, however, did not go into detail about the excuses.
He said the IPCMC would be able to usher in reforms in the political arena as well as enforcement.
He said this when asked about the challenges he faced in implementing the National Anti-Corruption Plan, which was launched in 2019.
The IPCMC, meant to replace the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission as a means to improve the transparency and accountability of the police force, was mooted in 2005.
The Bill was tabled for first reading in July 2019.
But in August last year, the Perikatan Nasional government tabled the Independent Police Conduct Commission (IPCC) Bill in place of the IPCMC Bill.
Under the revised Bill, the new police oversight body would be placed under the home ministry so that the minister would be able to monitor its progress.
The previous proposal for the IPCMC had called for it to be placed under the legal affairs division.
On a separate matter, Abu Kassim said everyone, from the prime minister to the layman, had to be fully committed if they wanted the country to be completely free of corruption.
He said corruption was often used as a tool to either gain power or topple a government.
“And once power is obtained, they will forget about the war against corruption.”
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