KUALA LUMPUR — Better standard operating procedures are needed to prevent abuse and deaths in custody, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar said today while recalling his own experience of being beaten in a police lockup 26 years ago.
Acknowledging that abuse of power by authorities remains a problem in Malaysia, Anwar said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razaruddin Husain had expressed the police force’s openness to conducting investigations and studies to prevent such occurrences in the future.
“I am speaking from experience. I was beaten until I was half-dead.
“So if anyone tells me their concerns about abuse in lock-ups, you don’t need to convince me. I know all about it.
“This is precisely why we must support all efforts to protect convicts and suspects in custody,” Anwar said in his speech to officiate the the Malaysian Human Rights Commission’s (Suhakam) silver jubilee at KL Sentral today.
He acknowledged that not all cases of deaths or injuries in custody are a result of abuse by the police or enforcement authorities.
“That is why we need proper procedures and protection,” added the prime minister, who is Tambun MP.
Anwar called on Suhakam to work with authorities to adopt proper procedures and protections for those in custody.
“This requires the full cooperation and endorsement of Suhakam.
“The best thing to do first is to partake in discussions with the police, which I believe is partly done, and to visit the lockups.
“If there are lockup visits I can follow because I am familiar with some of these areas,” added Anwar, who has also served time in prison on conviction for sodomy, which were deemed politically motivated charges and for which he received a royal pardon.
There were 20 deaths in immigration custody and 24 in police custody between 2022 and May 20 this year, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had told the Dewan Rakyat on July 1.
For the period between 2011 and 2021, there were 430 custodial deaths in Malaysia, according to a study by the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission which covered the police, immigration department, and other agencies.
Anwar’s experience of being beaten in custody was in 1998, when he was investigated over allegations of sodomy after being sacked from his position in government then as deputy prime minister over a fallout when then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He appeared in court with a black eye.
Dr Mahathir, who ordered the sacking, had suggested that Anwar could have inflicted the injury on himself in a bid to garner public sympathy.
In 1999, during a Royal Commission of Inquiry, former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Rahim Noor admitted to beating Anwar unconscious.
In 2005, Rahim apologised to Anwar and his family over the 1998 incident. — September 9, 2024
