The DAP legislator said Fuzi, who was promoted from the position of Special Branch chief today, needed to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into police reform chaired by former chief justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah in 2004.
The RCI had, among other things, called for an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to be set up to provide an appropriate external check-and-balance on the police.
The government has not taken up the idea, as contained in the RCI’s report issued in 2005.
“The new IGP should ‘free’ the police from politics and focus instead on real crimes,” Sim said in a statement today.
He said Fuzi should support the RCI’s report by focussing the force towards fighting crime and not non-police related tasks such as prosecution, logistical support, paramilitary operations and countering political dissent.
“In fact, a full implementation of the recommendations in the 2005 Tun Dzaiddin Royal Commission on Police Reform is now gravely overdue and should be done without delay,” he said.
Fuzi’s appointment to replace Khalid Abu Bakar who retired was made during a hand-over ceremony at the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) in Kuala Lumpur earlier today.
Sim also called on Fuzi to end incidents of death in police custody.
He cited Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s parliamentary reply to Puchong MP Gobind Singh on March 21 which said there were 110 deaths in custody in police lockups from 2010 to 2016.
“Additionally, in his reply to MP for Sungai Siput (Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj) on 30 March 2017, the home minister revealed that there were 1,619 deaths in police custody from 2010 to 2016,” Sim said.
“This year alone, before the end of the first quarter, there were already three deaths,” he said.
“This trend must stop. Death in custody is not only injustice to the victims and their families but also exposes the horrible reality of abuse of power by the authority,” he added.
He also urged Fuzi to resolve the abduction case of Pastor Raymond Koh, as well as the disappearances of Perlis Hope charity outfit founder Amri Che Mat, and Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth, in the first week.
Koh was abducted by an unknown group of people in Kelana Jaya on Feb 13, while Joshua and Ruth were last seen on Nov 30 last year and Amri has been missing since Nov 24 last year.
Fuzi should also give priority to dealing decisively with nationwide gambling syndicates once and for all, and investigate the individual cited as “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1) in the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) civil suit to seize assets that were allegedly purchased with money related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Sim added.