Party stalwart Lim Kit Siang said with the recent cases of custodial deaths, the call by the commission headed by former chief justice Dzaiddin Abdullah and ex-IGP Hanif Omar is worthy of consideration as the image of the police continues to take a beating.

“The commission had viewed with grave concern the unacceptable high incidence of deaths in police custody and the failure by the authorities to hold inquests before magistrates in most of the cases.

“They proposed that inquiries must be held into all such cases within one month of receiving the report,” he said in a statement.

Claiming that the seven IGPs before the current one had failed to transform the police force into a world-class institution, the Iskandar Puteri MP said the ball was now at Acryl Sani’s feet to do the needful by implementing the recommendations of the royal commission  made 16 years ago.

He said recent happenings in the police force appears to also necessitate the establishment of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) as recommended by the same commission.

“The recent deaths in police custody of security guard S Sivabalan and cow’s milk trader A Ganapathy, are not going to be the last going by the history of the police.

“The notion that police personnel are immune from prosecution for gross abuses of power must be banished, as Malaysia must be known to the world that it is a nation where rule of law prevails,” he said.

He hoped that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and home minister Hamzah Zainudin would make a stand on this crucial matter.