He told the Dewan Rakyat he understood the public’s unease about enforcement bodies investigating public complaints about themselves, thus the need for an independent body to carry out this task.

“In my opinion, it’s better that an independent body take investigative action of all complaints against these enforcement bodies, including the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), immigration department, customs department, and others,” he said.

Anwar said the Attorney-General’s Chambers has been asked to do a preliminary study on the matter.

He was responding to a question from Gobind Singh Deo (PH-Damansara) on whether the government has plans to create an independent body to investigate enforcement agencies.

Anwar said creating a new body would not be difficult and that it had actually been discussed before.

In the past, he said, the proposed establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) drew a reaction from the police.

“What the police were unhappy about was that the IPCMC was specifically targeted at them, but the issue (of abuse) involves all enforcement agencies,” he said.

The IPCMC, meant to replace the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission and improve transparency and accountability of the police force, was mooted in 2005.

The IPCMC Bill was tabled in Parliament by the Pakatan Harapan government in 2019.

In 2020, the IPCC Bill was introduced to replace the IPCMC Bill. The IPCC Bill, which critics described as a watered-down version of the IPCMC Bill, was passed in July last year during the Ismail Sabri Yaakob government.

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