Hishammuddin should ensure UMNO Youth protects and promotes human rights in Malaysia instead of protesting too much about the US State Department Report on Human Rights Practices 2000

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

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He said although he readily conceded that human rights practices in Malaysia were far from perfect,  the same was also true for the United States.

He said:

"Given the fact that the US has its own share of significant human rights abuses, may I ask on what basis does the world's only superpower believe it has the moral authority to judge other countries like  Malaysia?''

Instead,  UMNO Youth has acquired notoriety and infamy as one of the greatest threats to  human rights in the country as evidenced by UMNO Youth's unruly, abusive and gangsterish demonstration at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur on 18th August 2000 threatening to burn down the building if there was no apology and withdrawal of the 83-point Suqiu election appeals and the lawless and gangsterish UMNO Youth break-up of the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) in Kuala Lumpur in November 1996.

Hishammuddin took strong objection to the  US State Department 2000 human rights report which  harshly criticised  Malaysia's handling of the case against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, saying it was politically motivated.

Is UMNO Youth prepared to support an independent nation-wide public opinion poll to ascertain whether the majority of Malaysians are of  the view that Anwar had been harshly,  unfairly and callously treated?

I am convinced that an independent and professional public opinion poll would show that the issue is not whether  the US State Department 2000 human rights harshly criticised Malaysia's handling of the case against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim but that the overwhelming majority of Malaysians,  regardless of race, religion and political beliefs, believe that Anwar had been treated
unfairly and callously.  This is why Anwar has become the crowning  symbol of the injustice and human rights violations of the Mahathir government.

No Malaysian would object or disagree with Hishammuddin's criticisms  of human rights violations in the United States - or  the latest expose of such violations which appeared in today's press from  Amnesty International USA's damning report that sexual abuse is rife in women's prisons in the United States.

However, two wrongs cannot make a right, and the violations of human rights in the United States cannot be used as a shield to justify human rights violations in Malaysia or to challenge the right of the United States to report on human rights abuses in Malaysia - just as the United States government would have no right to try to shut up Malaysian criticisms about human rights violations in the United States just because of the existence of human rights violations in Malaysia!

Where the US State Department 2000 human rights report is right about human rights violations, Hishammuddin and the government should be courageous to admit to these transgressions and take active steps to clean up the human rights abuses, such the following comments in the report:

• Opposition parties actively contest elections, but face significant obstacles in competing with the long-entrenched ruling coalition.

• The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, government  action, constitutional amendments, legislation, and other factors undermine judicial  independence and strengthen executive influence over the judiciary.

• The police report to and are under the effective control of the Home Minister. Some members of the police committed human rights abuses.

• The Government generally respected its citizens' rights in some areas; however, its record was poor in a number of other areas, and significant problems remain.

• Police committed a number  of extrajudicial killings; however, authorities prosecuted the perpetrators in some of these  cases.  Police on occasion tortured, beat, or otherwise abused prisoners, detainees, and demonstrators.

• Government restrictions, pressure, and intimidation led to a high degree of press self-censorship.

• The Election Commission's lack of independence impedes it from effectively enforcing election results and monitoring elections.

• To uphold the fundamental right of Malaysians  to peaceful assembly, or does UMNO Youth arrogate to itself the sole right not only to peaceful assembly but to unruly and  gansgsterish assembly as illustrated in the APCET II and Suqiu nstances?

• To protect the right of free expression of university lecturers by demanding that local university  authorities should not issue show-cause letters to lecturers for speaking the truth on the ground that this could embarrass the government, as highlighted by the pending  case of  University of Malaya lecturer Associate Professor  Chia Oai Peng for speaking the truth about the "hijacking" episode in the  the Damansara school controversy.

• To uphold press freedom to stop the Home Ministry from harassing foreign media by withholding approval for their circulation and sale in the news-stands as is happening to Far Eastern Economic Review and Asiaweek.

(8/3/2001)