Media Statement
by DAP Human Rights Bureau chairman and Member of Parliament for Tanjung Chow Kon Yeow
on Wednesday, 19 Jun 2002
in Kuala Lumpur
Yesterday I have submitted a notice to the Parliament Speaker to move a censure motion against the Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, as Minister responsible for human rights, for his failures to ensure that Malaysia complies with the international commitments to promote and protect human rights including the failure to formulate a National Action Plan for Human Rights.
However, the motion submitted by me would not be able to fulfill the requirement of Standing Order 27 (3), which requires a notice of not less than fourteen days.
There is no way any member could move a motion by giving fourteen days’ notice as the current session is for eight days only.
However, the Standing Order 27 (3) also provides that if the motion is moved in the name of a Minister, a seven days’ notice is sufficient.
The same Standing Order also provides that inter alia “ … if Tuan Yang Di Pertua is satisfied upon representation to him by a Minister that the public interest requires that a motion should be debated as soon as possible, one day’s notice shall be sufficient.”
This provision was used 11 December last year, when the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato’ Seri Rais Yatim moved a motion to suspend MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan for six months without allowances by giving only one day’s notice.
As such I have make a urgent appeal yesterday to the Deputy Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is the Government’s Whip, to exercise his power under Standing Order 27 (3) to move a similar motion to allow Parliament to debate the censure motion against Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and also debate the Suhakam Annual Report 2001, which was tabled in Parliament on Monday, 17 June 2002.
Suhakam Annual Report 2001 is an important document on the state of affairs of human rights in Malaysia and should be debated in full in Parliament.
It is disappointing to note that the Government has failed to present a government memorandum to accompany the first Suhakam Annual Report 2000 when tabled in Parliament in April last year to state the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations of Suhakam and for the non-acceptance of the recommendations, if any.
There was also no government memorandum accompanying the second Suhakam Annual Report 2001 although Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar had been sitting on the report for months.
We hope the Deputy Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will realize the need to debate the Suhakam Annual Report in Parliament as a commitment of the government towards human rights development in the country.
The government should treat the Suhakam seriously and not as a decorative showpiece of human rights in Malaysia.