Suhakam has infringed the Human Rights Commission Act in failing to submit its second annual report  to the last Parliamentary meeting

(Petaling Jaya,  Friday): Suhakam has infringed the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia  (HRCM) Act 1999 in failing to submit its second annual report to the last Parliamentary meeting, where the Dewan Rakyat met from 11^th  March  to 9^th  April while the Dewan Negara met from 8^th to 23^rd  April, 2002.  

Section 21(1) of the HRCM Act provides:

“21. (1) The Commission shall not later than the first meeting of Parliament of the following year, submit an annual report to Parliament of all its activities during the year to which the report relates.  

"(2)The report shall contain a list of all matters referred to it, and the action taken in respect of them together with the recommendations of the Commission in respect of each matter.

“(3) The Commission may, whenever it considers it necessary to do so, submit special reports to Parliament in respect of any particular matter or matters referred to it, and the action taken in respect thereof.”

It is clear that the first Suhakam under the chairmanship of Tan Sri Musa Hitam had contravened this provision in the HRCM Act which makes it mandatory that the second annual report for 2001  should have been submitted at the first meeting of Parliament which met in March and April this year.

May be, Musa can explain why and how Suhakam could commit such a blunder in contravening its principal Act.  Is this because of the crisis faced by Suhakam in its second year of existence, when it had to face a more inhospitable and even hostile government and bureaucracy, especially after its inquiry into widespread police abuses of power and human rights violations in the Kesas Highway Incident in November 2000 - and was this why Suhakam blotted its credibility and legitimacy when it failed to hold a public  inquiry into even worse human rights violations in the Kampong Medan racial attacks in March last year which claimed six lives and injured some hundred people.  

Musa’s explanation as to why Suhakam did not conduct a public inquiry into  the Kampong Medan racial attacks is  completely unacceptable.  

Musa told Malaysiakini  that the violence that broke out in Kampong Medan in March last year was criminal in nature and police were already investigating the matter, and that it was not a human rights case.  

Police investigations cannot be a good reason for inaction by Suhakam, just as the Suhakam Complaints and Inquiries Working Group did not allow strenuous objections from the police and the Attorney-General from holding a public inquiry into the Kesas Highway Incident and coming out with an thorough and excellent report which could withstand the most meticulous police and government scrutiny. 

Malaysians are rightly concerned about the failure of Suhakam to hold a public inquiry into the Kampong Medan racial attacks which were more serious than the Kesas Highway Incident as lives were lost in the former,  and they are entitled to ask whether this was the first sign of a weak and compliant human rights commission.  

The new panel of Suhakam commissioners, under the chairmanship of Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman, should review the numerous representations for a public inquiry into the Kampong Medan racial attacks and as a first step to establish its credibility, override the earlier Suhakam decision by announcing the holding of a public inquiry into the Kampong Medan racial attacks in keeping with its statutory mandate to “protect” human rights.

(26/4/2002)