Its president, George Varughese, said the Bar also stands ready to lend its expertise to assist the government to make the IPCMC a reality in the near future.

“The Malaysian public deserves no less than proper, independent and holistic civilian oversight of, and full accountability by, the police,” he said in a statement.

He said this in response to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s announcement last week that the existing Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) would be enhanced and converted into the IPCMC.

Varughese said the Bar would await details as to how the EAIC Act 2009 would be revised.

“In our view, rather than amend the EAIC Act, a fresh bill for the establishment of the IPCMC would be preferable and should be tabled without delay.”

He said it was also heartening that the police no longer oppose the proposed IPCMC.

The Bar has consistently called for the establishment of the IPCMC since its establishment was proposed by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police in its report published in May 2005.

A proposed bill for the establishment of the IPCMC had been included in the report.

However, the previous Barisan Nasional government declined to implement this recommendation and had set up the EAIC instead.

Varughese said one of the weaknesses of the EAIC was that it was slow in investigating complaints of police misconduct.

He said although the shortcoming had been mitigated, a continuing flaw was the EAIC’s inability to ensure that its findings were acted on by the plethora of law enforcement agencies placed within its purview.

Varughese said this had severely reduced the effectiveness of the EAIC.