(Petaling Jaya, Saturday): The final formal stand of the Bar Council expressing its “grave concern” over the
appointment of Tan Sri Abu Talib as the Suhakam
chairman and the non-reappointment
of commissioners Tan Sri Annuar Zainal Abidin, Prof Mehrun Siraj and Datuk Dr
Salleh Mohd Nor are most welcome and timely – as otherwise the credibility and
integrity of the Bar Council itself would come under grave
national question.
Abu Talib and the Suhakam Commissioners
should take serious note and respond immediately and
positively to the Bar Council’s concern as the backgrounds of Abu Talib
and the in-coming might not be
compatible to the task ahead of them or they did not have the experience or
track record in the field of human rights; the 100-day disengagement protest by
32 NGOs led by Hakam, Suaram and Aliran because of the government’s contempt
for various Suhakam reports and
recommendations and the undermining of the credibility, independence and
integrity of Suhakam; as well as the reservations of Opposition parties and
concerned Malaysians that the second-term Suhakam would be reduced to a pale
shadow of the first-term Suhakam and be a mere alibi institution to justify the
deteriorating human rights conditions in post-911 Malaysia.
It
does not bespoke of high regard for Suhakam or commitment to the principles of
accountability, transparency and democracy that the government has still kept
mum on the numerous questions
raised about its attitude to the Human Rights Commission, such as why the three
most industrious, committed and conscientious Suhakam Commissioners,
Annuar, Mehrun and Salleh had been axed and why the Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar had
usurped the statutory powers and duties of Suhakam and illegally hijacked the
Suhakam annual report 2001 causing it to contravene the Suhakam Act 1999 to
submit its annual report to the last Parliament.
Yesterday,
Suhakam commissioner Prof Mohd
Hamdan Adnan, who heads the Complaints and Inquiries Working Group, said several
contract officers will be appointed as legal and investigative officers to
assist in Suhakam's duties and that four or five officers are being interviewed
for two-year appointments
Malaysiakini
reported
that the move to appoint legal officers is intended to overcome the shortage of
legal expertise among the new Suhakam team of commissioners after the contracts
of Anuar and Mehrun were not renewed as apart from Abu Talib, all four other new
commissioners did not previously
The
appointment of the full-time legal and investigative officers however cannot be
satisfactory substitutes to make for the conspicuous absence of Commissioners like Anuar, Mehrun and Salleh with the authority, experience and
expertise to probe in-depth into complaints about human rights abuses and
violations.
For instance, the new Suhakam
Complaints and Inquiries Working Group, which is now headed by Hamdan, is a very
weak team, comprising Tan Sri Datuk
Seri Panglima Simon Sapaun, Dr. Mohamad Hirman Ritom Abdullah, Dato' Dr. Abdul
Monir Yaacob, Datuk Dr. Raj Abdul Karim and Cik Zainah Anwar.
If the government is serious in wanting
to have a Suhakam which has “teeth” and not just a “white-wash” body,
then it should re-appoint Anuar, Mehrun and Salleh as Suhakam Commissioners and
the new Suhakam should invite the 32 NGOs conducting the 100-day boycott protest
to a dialogue to understand and
meet their grievances.
This is particularly important as the
Paris Principles adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993
as an international standard for national
human rights commissions stressed the importance of all human rights
commissions to recognize “fundamental role played by non-government
organizations in expanding the work of national institutions” and to
“develop relations with non-government organizations devoted to promoting and
protecting human rights”.
The restoration of the confidence of the NGOs, Bar Council, Opposition political parties and concerned Malaysians should be top on the agenda of the second-term Suhakam.
(18/5/2002)