THE cabinet today decided that the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) bill will be reviewed and refined before a final decision is made on it.

In a Facebook post today, de facto Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Takiyuddin Hassan said he has been tasked along with Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin to look over the bill.

“It will then be taken to Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob for further discussion before a decision is made by the cabinet,” Takiyuddin said in the post.

The IPCMC bill had been tabled in the July session last year for first reading, and its debate postponed until October.

But the government delayed voting on the bill in the second reading in October and referred it to a parliamentary select committee.

The proposal for the IPCMC came about after a 2005 royal commission of inquiry to improve the operations and welfare of the police force. 

Former minister in the prime minister’s department Liew Vui Keong had said the delay to the IPCMC was because the government had wanted to include recommendations from the select committee.  

Social activists, however, questioned whether there was opposition to it from within the Pakatan Harapan administration, who was in power then.

They had also said then that the postponement of the IPCMC came as no surprise as the police have started showing resistance to this watchdog body. – March 18, 2020.