Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) will heighten its role as watchdog for both Barisan Nasional's (BN) federal government and Pakatan Rakyat's (PR) state governments in term of the increasingly human rights abuses, intolerance towards dissent and opposition as witness in 2009 and 2010.
During the launching of the Malaysian Human Rights Report 2009 yesterday, SUARAM's Documentation and Monitoring Coordinator John Liu noted that there were serious and repeated abuses of power not only by the police, but also other law enforcement agencies such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
"There were eight deaths in custody recorded in 2009 where seven of the cases happened when the detainees were in the police custody and another case in the custody of the MACC," revealed Liu.
He further added that the Malaysian government has refused to ratify the United Nation's Convention Against Torture (CAT) despite repeatedly urged to do so.
The number of people shot dead by the police rose from 13 in 2007 to 88 in 2009, with not a single police officer known to be held accountable for any of those deaths.
Liu claimed that there was heightened intolerance to dissent in 2009 with mass arrests of participants of public peaceful assemblies in numbers which significantly exceeded those of previous years. Arrest of 589 people, including minors, during the massive anti-ISA rally in Kuala Lumpur on August 1, 2009 was cited as possible the greatest number of persons arrested in a single public assembly in recent years.
Repressive laws such as the Sedition Act and the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) were used against opposition politicians and critics of the government.
Liu noted that the government continued to arrest and detain individuals using the Internal Security Act (ISA), Emergency Ordinance (EO) and the Dangerous Drugs Act (DDA) during 2009 even though more ISA detainees were released compared to previous years.
"At the end of 2009 there were still nine ISA detainees imprisoned without trial and more than a thousand people were still held under EO and DDA," revealed Liu.
SUARAM urged the government to repeal all detention without trial laws pointed out that these legislations seriously violate fundamental human rights.
SUARAM also reiterated several demands which include:
1. The immediate setting up of an independent and effect oversight monitoring body to ensure accountability in the police force and other law enforcement agencies
2. The repeal of repressive legislations and /or provisions in laws which undermine freedom of speech, expression and assembly, namely the PPPA, the Official Secrets Act (OSA), the Sedition Act, and Section 27 of the Police Act
3. The recognition of the status and rights of refugees and asylum seekers
4. The rectification of all remaining core international human rights treaties, noting that Malaysia has only ratified two of the nine core treaties - and even so, with reservations and
5. The strengthening of SUHAKAM's independence and effectiveness, and the implementation of the Commission's recommendations.
Also present at the launch were SUARAM director Kua Kia Soong, chairperson K Arumugam, secretariat member Masjaliza Hamzah, former ISA detainee Mat Sah Satray and his wife Norliala Othman, representatives from numerous foreign diplomatic corps and other non-governmental organizations.
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