Many Malaysians have long believed that law enforcement agency officials are over-empowered, which has led to incidences of abuses and wrongdoings by authority figures, owing to the unavailability of checks-and-balances, watchdog councils and overseers.

The recent Taiping Prison riots is suspected by many Malaysians to be the tip of the iceberg, and a glaring example of why many of the rakyat are of the general view and opinion that there is something amiss and not right in enforcing the rule of law.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), prisoners in the overcrowded Taiping Prison were routinely being assaulted by the wardens, and they could not take the beatings anymore, and rebelled against the guards.

In the ensuing riots, a prison inmate died and other prisoners suffered serious injuries, including broken rib cages, ruptured eardrums, as a result of these unprovoked attacks, even though the prisoners were not aggressive.

Suhakam findings showed that the issue extended beyond the riots itself and highlighted concerns involving the police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Prisons Department which is why they are calling for urgent reforms.

In the process of their investigations, Suhakam stated theTaiping Prison was unfit to house prisoners, and also disclosed that the number of prisoners in the country is recorded as having exceeded 84,000 inmates, surpassing the nationwide capacity of 76,000.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE