Day: April 24, 2016

Human rights in Malaysia still ‘patchy’

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Source: AsiaOne

SUHAKAM Chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam (right) - pic by NSTP/Rosela Ismail

SUHAKAM Chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam (right) and Vice-Chairman Datuk Dr Khaw Lake Tee (in background) – pic by NSTP/Rosela Ismail

ASK Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam about the state of human rights in Malaysia and he will say it is “patchy and not uniform”.

“My concern is whether human rights is a high priority to the Government,” says Hasmy, whose second term as chairman ends tomorrow at midnight.

Leaving also are vice-chairman Datuk Dr Khaw Lake Tee and commissioners Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Mahmood Zuhdi Ab Majid and James Nayagam.

Unlike them, commissioners Prof Datuk Dr Aishah Bidin, Francis Johen and Sylvester @ Nordin Kasim are eligible to serve another term if re-appointed because they have completed just one term so far.

In an exclusive interview, Hasmy tells Sunday Star that: “Preventive detention, terrorism and security laws are being misused to suppress political expression and dissent.”

Citing the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act, he says the broad characterisation of “security offences” under the Act shows that its ambit extends beyond terrorism offences.

He says it contradicts the Prime Minister’s guarantee in 2011 that “no individual will be arrested merely on the point of political ideology”. Read more →

Mirror, mirror on the wall! – Gurdial Singh Nijar

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Source: The Sun Daily

BY GURDIAL SINGH NIJAR
(Deputy President, HAKAM)

THE US monitors the human rights record of all countries by faithfully releasing country reports on human rights practices every year without fail. It just released the 2015 report on April 13. But strangely it fails always to reflect on its own situation, implying that its record is exemplary. But is it?

China produced a report titled “Human Rights Record of the US in 2015” because the US government “refuses to hold a mirror to look at itself”. The well-documented report shows that the US 2015 human rights record is as bad if not worse than that of the countries it routinely condemns.

Replete with data and citations from respectable Western sources, the report shows civil rights abuses: rampant gun-related crimes and excessive use of force by the police with 51,675 incidents resulting in 13,136 deaths and 26,493 injured. The US police shot dead 965 people.

In the economic and social rights sphere, more than 560,000 people were rendered homeless and 33 million had no health insurance, depriving them of health care. Read more →