(Penang, Friday): Suhakam commissioner Dr. Abdul
Monir Yaacob should explain why he had not honoured his word to table the Perak
DAP complaint about Ipoh police abuses of power, wrongful arrest and wrongful
raid of Perak DAP premises on Monday’s full Suhakam board meeting.
I had raised the matter with the Suhakam
Chairman Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman in our 80-minute meeting at the Suhakam
headquarters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, and Abu
Talib promised to look into the matter as he said he was unaware that the
Perak DAP had lodged a complaint with Suhakam.
I find this most shocking, as the DAP Perak
complaint was handed by the DAP Perak delegation headed by Perak DAP State
Chairman, Ngeh Koo Ham accompanied by DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan,
former DAP Perak Assemblywoman for
Menglembu, Loke Swee Chin and Perak DAPSY leader Thomas Soo personally to Monir
at the Suhakam office in Kuala Lumpur the previous Friday on 7th June
2002.
Monir’s failure to honour his word to table
the DAP Perak complaint at the full Suhakam board meeting on Monday on 10th
June 2002 is not calculated to enhance public confidence in the credibility,
transparency, efficiency or commitment of Suhakam to its statutory duties to
promote and protect human rights.
In my meeting with the Suhakam Chairman, I
stressed that Suhakam must prove that it is itself an institution of good
governance, surpassing the standards it expects of others, in terms of
effectiveness, transparency and swift and just redressal of human rights
violations.
Abu Talib told me yesterday that Suhakam
commissioners are not under a “gag” preventing them from speaking freely,
and if so, Monir should explain what has happened to the DAP Perak complaint
which he had received and promised to table at the Suhakam full board meeting
last Monday. I hope it would not
end up as one of the long list of police and now Suhakam reports smothered with
“inaction”.
(14/6/2002)