IPCMC (Malaysia) and ICAC (Hong Kong)

I was reading Jeff Ooi's blog on the resistance put up by the Royal Malaysia Police on the formation of IPCMC. There are striking similarities with the resistance by Hong Kong Police Force during the formative year of ICAC.

When established in 1974, the Hong Kong ICAC's main target was syndicated corruption in government departments - notably the Police Force.

News reports about police officers being arrested or investigated for corruption were almost a weekly occurrence in the first three years of the ICAC.

As recorded by the book "History of ICAC" (I have blogged this earlier):

"On 28 October 1977, about 2,000 people demonstrated at the police headquarters, while several dozen police officers stormed the ICAC Headquarters. After careful consideration of the circumstances, the Government decided to issue a "partial amnesty". "

The full text of the Partial Amnesty
The directive stated essentially that in future the ICAC would not act on complaints or evidence relating to offences committed before 1 January 1977. The exception would be those where suspects had already been interviewed (and allegations of offence put to them), persons against whom arrest warrants had been issued, and persons outside Hong Kong on 15 November 1977.Also excluded from the amnesty were offences considered so heinous that it would be unthinkable to refrain from action. However, it was stipulated that the governor should be consulted first.

The difference between the two is that IPCMC is a still-born. The Abdullah administration lacks the political will to bring the reform to the police forces.