Amnesty International Malaysia has played a role in freeing dozens of political prisoners by writing thousands of protest letters every year. Sadly, there are still dozens more being wrongfully imprisoned in Malaysia for their opinions who need protest letters written for them. To become a freedom writer, log onto http://www.aimalaysia.org/ and find out how you can help.
WHAT'S GOING ON IN MALAYSIA?
In a periodic review submitted to the United Nations, dated December 2008, Amnesty International describes the current status of human rights in Malaysia. It's horrible!
Today, almost ten years after the creation of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999, the national human rights institution (NHRI) faces a possible status downgrade from "A" to "B" by the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions. after failing to comply with the Paris Principles for an independent and effective NHRI. What does that mean? If downgraded, it will lose its right to participate in the regular sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and will be relegated as a non-voting member of the Asia Pacific Forum on Human Rights Institutions. Limited to merely submitting its opinions and reports to the government, the NHRI has no enforcement authority to protect human rights.
The Malaysian government routinely uses detention laws to deny individuals freedom from arbitrary detention, the right to a fair trial and other human rights. The government continues to use or threaten to use the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) against perceived critics of the government. The ISA allows the police to arrest people they believe have acted, or are "about to" or "likely to" act in a way that would threaten Malaysian security.
It allows for detention without trial for up to two years, renewable indefinitely, without the detainee being charged with a crime or tried in a court of law. Why does this sound so familiar? It sounds like the United State's security laws against terrorism.
Events in recent weeks indicate real-life specifics of what's going on in Malaysia:
- BLOGGER ARRESTED -- Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor of news portal Malaysia Today, was arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act -- a repressive measure to control dissent, reported Amnesty International. The online social commentator Raja Petra joined more than 60 others currently held under the ISA, without being charged with an offense or brought to fair trial. He was arrested for threatening national security and potentially "causing tension among the country's multi-racial and multi-religious society." Amnesty International points out that police routinely hold those arrested under the ISA in incommunicado detention, without access to family or lawyers, greatly increasing the risk of torture and other ill-treatment. And if that weren't enough, the Home Minister warned prior to his arrest, that he could be charged under the ISA for allegedly insulting Islam and Prophet Muhammad.
Just six hours ago, the Associated Press said that Malaysia has scrapped an invitation for Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi to deliver a speech on Islam because of pressure from the Iranian government. Winning the peace prize in 2003 for her work advocating greater rights for women and children in Iran, Ebadi accepted the invitation to speak at Kuala Lumpur's University Of Malaya on Nov. 3, but the Malaysian Foreign Ministry sent a letter to organizers "strongly advising" them not to host her. They withdrew the invitation. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has denounced the decision to cancel Ebadi's speech, blaming Tehran of using "all its might to muzzle Dr. Ebadi and her human rights advocacy inside Iran." Now the Malaysian government is doing the same on behalf of the Iranians.
- MALAYSIA'S EXPECTED REFORMS NIXED -- Malaysia's government has backed off from expected reforms of their tough internal security laws, said New Straits Times. Many had expected the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to reform the laws after the appointment of Zaid Ibrahim, a human rights lawyer, as the de facto law minister. However, Zaid resigned last month after proposing an overhaul of the security law following the arrest of two journalists and a politician. The Prime Minister now says he has no intention of reviewing the law before he leaves office.
By Sharon McEachern
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