Detained women get caucus backing
Friday, 18-11-2005The big coverage of the mistreatment of the Chinse nationals by police attracted the attention of Dato’ Seri Nazri, minister in PM’s department, who suggested I bring them to Parliament as he wanted to meet them in his capacity as Chairman of Human Rights Caucus of Malaysian Parliament.
After Nazri read their joint police report, he then met the press together with me, Lim Kit Siang, Fong Po Kuan and Chong Eng. He condemned the action of police and he described this as shameful for Malaysia. He, wearing his chairman of Human Rights Caucus hat, also apologised to the women for what they have gone through.
He also criticised the way immigration officers handled the female tourists from China who came to Malaysia, especially those who are below 35 years old. He said the cabinet has discussed the attitude of the immigration officers towards Chinese nationals and accepted this was one of the reasons why tourists from China preferred other destinations rather then come to Malaysia.
From parliament, the three were brought by a DAP Seputehmy, Ricky Low, to the PJ police station to attend identification parade of those police officers who abused their power. The police purposely made their lives difficult by arranging 40 police officers for them to identify, and the photo came out in China Press. A friend called me and wanted to know why the police arranged for 40 police officers to participate in the parade, saying “Is that the tactic to confuse them?” He suggested a fund be set up to assist Chinese nationals who have been victimised in Malaysia. The fund could also be used as legal fee to sue the police or authority concerned.
I am very surprised that this issue has created so much interests from the Chinese media. The Chinese night papers have put the photo and the story of the visit to parliament on front page. I received calls from the papers in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdo over this issue. To my surprise, the Chinese Embassy called me to ask for details. It is the first time China diplomats have contacted me since I became an MP in 1999. I have never been contacted by officials from China Embassy nor have been invited to their functions.
I do hope that this case can be the lesson for our police force. It is high time our police personnels learn to respect human rights and human dignity. With this issue being publicised widely by the media, I hope they will be more careful when they put people into lock-ups. I also hope that this wide publicity will encourage any women who have been mistreated by police to come forward to lodge reports and defend their rights.
Unknowingly, the brave actions of these three women from China may have saved many other women from being unlawfully detained and abused by the police.
i’ve been thinking about returning to m’sia with my non-m’sian girlfriend but one of the big issues that is holding me back is the weak rule of law and justice in the country, especially it seems in the KL area, and the lack of transparency, accountability, discipline and formal training within law enforcement agencies and their personnel. i just read these 2 personal accounts of harrowing and traumatic experiences with law enforcement officials which seem to be regular, matter-of-course affairs at least as far as the police and judiciary are concerned.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/41621
http://www.alloexpat.com/malaysia_expat_forum/viewtopic.php?t=7160
so since you, teresa kok, seem to have more integrity than most of the other politicians and police and since you’ve been championing the civil rights of the average person and since you are a member of the
Select Committee on Review of Penal Code & Criminal Procedure Code, would you as an overdue public service, be so kind as to answer a few basic questions on the rights and responsibilities of an individual, malaysian and foreign, when dealing with the pigs, whoops, i meant police.
what are the responsibilities and rights of the police when confronting an individual? what are the rights and responsibilities of the indivdual in such a situation?
if confronted by a someone claiming to be a police officer, how can we verify their identity? what must an officer do to prove his/her identity?
does an individual have to follow a police officer to the station without being given a very good reason? what are the consequences for refusing to cooperate?
does an individual have to allow a police officer into his/her home on demand? aren’t special warrants endorsed by magistrates necessary?
what kind of documents is the individual, malaysian and foreigner, reasonably required to carry at all times on their person? will photocopies suffice?
on what grounds can they remand a person? do these grounds have to be revealed to the person immediately?
does remand equate with arrest, ie, being officially charged with a crime? if yes, then for how long can they “remand” a person before bringing them to court? if no, how long can that person be under remand before being charged?
are the police obliged to inform the next-of-kin and if the person is a foreigner, their respective embassy? at what point in the whole process does the individual get to contact his/her family and lawyer.
are the police obliged to tell us what our rights are while under detention? for eg. access to family, legal counsel, decent food/accomodation/ medicine/ doctors?
does the detainee have any right to make phone calls, to have their religious practices respected, to have their medical conditions including food allergies taken into account whilst in prison?
is the detainee required to do everything they are told however unreasonable (stripping naked) and are they required to answer any and all questions asked however personal and irrelevant to the issue at hand?
are there any statutory guarantees that secure the rights of detainees? if so, do you mind putting the relevant act on your blog?
is there an independent ombudsmen that is accessible to hear complaints of mistreatment, corruption and abuse of power during and after detention? how much authority does that ombudsmen have and are they required to act within a specific period of time? are they obliged to make public their findings?
one last suggestion: if you ever manage to answer all these questions on your blog in a coherent and methodical way, perhaps you should consider putting that information in a booklet and getting the government to make it freely available in malay, chinese, english and tamil at every police station in the country so that the ordinary citizen is empowered with the knowledge of their rights while the unscrupulous, exploitative elements within the police are emasculated of their tyrannical powers.
Comment by kalliorocks — Monday, 21-11-2005 @ 02: 07.02