WHEN Pakatan Harapan swept into power slightly more than 500 days ago, hope was rekindled among civil society groups that finally, there would be answers and justice forthcoming on the disappearance of two social activists more than two years ago.

A public inquiry had been held by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) when the country was still under Barisan Nasional’s administration.

The inquiry ended, and the findings were made public earlier this year, accusing the Special Branch at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman of abducting Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat.

Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had also announced the setting up of a special task force to investigate the disappearances four months ago, but till today, nothing has come out of that.

Rights groups Citizens Against Enforced Disappearances (Caged) and Suara Rakyat Malaysia had been instrumental in the initiation of the public inquiry.

Caged spokesman Rama Ramanathan has even gone so far as to say that the poor handling of the abductions was tantamount to PH’s complicity in the acts of enforced disappearances perpetrated under the Barisan government.

Rama told The Malaysian Insight recently that since the formation of the special task force, not a single statement has been issued.

“The public does not know whether the task force has provided regular progress updates to the families or to Suhakam,” Rama said.

“To date, we do not know the terms of reference of the task force and have no news of any disciplinary actions taken by the police against officers who claimed much memory loss and who gave much contradictory and fabricated evidence in the inquiry.”

He added that this “zero-credibility task force” was a massive blemish on the PH government.

Rama also hit out at Putrajaya over the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

“The IPCMC, which was supposed to be a wily tiger, has been crafted as a weak tadpole,” Rama said.

“If the government is serious about police reform, it would set up a real IPCMC.

“To do so, it must release data about police performance, including the effectiveness of police investigating themselves, and public perception.”

Then, he said, it must develop alternative policy proposals, ranging from police undertaking all investigations into the force (as in Hong Kong) or the police doing no investigations into itself (as in Northern Ireland).

It must obtain public input, evaluate the policies, define and adopt a solution and, finally, craft and pass legislation to make it happen and not start with the legislation as it did so hurriedly in July, Rama added.

“In the area of police reform, I give Pakatan the same rating as Barisan: D-.” – September 29, 2019.