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International community piles pressure on PM
Free Malaysia Today - July 5, 2011
The three-page letter was signed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, World Organisation Against Torture, International Federation for Human Rights and Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development.
Copies were also sent to Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Nazri Aziz and Inspector General of Police Ismail Omar.
While the NGOs decried the spate of arrests and the banning of the rally, their most vocal opposition was against the use of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) on the six Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members.
They stated that Malaysia's use of draconian preventive detention laws was incompatible with its seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
The NGOs also reminded Najib of his pledge in 2009 to "uphold civil liberties" and "regard for fundamental rights of the people of Malaysia".
"We call on you to turn these pledges into concrete action by asking law enforcement officers to immediately cease use of all preventive detention laws, and by starting a time-bound process to repeal those laws," the letter read.
"The Malaysian penal code and criminal justice system are fully capable of addressing situations of internal security, and should be allowed to do so without resorting to preventive detention."
Alarm bells
The NGOs pointed out that government was violating the right to freedom of association by designating Bersih as an "illegal organisation" under Section 5 of the Societies Act of 1966.
"Your government has failed to provide any credible evidence to substantiate the Registrar of Societies' claims that Bersih is trying to topple the government, or is a risk to public order, safety, economy and sovereignity," they added.
Meanwhile the deputy director of the Human Rights Watch Asia division, Phil Robertson, stated that the crackdown on peaceful activists indicated that Malaysia's leaders have abandoned any pretense of honouring the obligations they made while running for the UNHRC seat.
"Governments that supported Malaysia's candidacy at the UN HRC should be burning up the phone lines to Putrajaya," he urged.
"They should raise serious concerns that Malaysia keep its word to respect rights, step back from this intimidation campaign, and negotiate with Bersih and it's supporters in civil society to address their legitimate concerns for electoral reform."
Robertson had told FMT in an earlier interview that the government's crackdown has sent alarming bells ringing through the international community and has tarnished Malaysia's reputation within the UN HRC.
He had also said that a number of foreign diplomats have attempted to pacify the Malaysian government but that the exact details of those talks have been kept confidential.
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