Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) foresees that this year's human rights report will be worse than last year's, with the government's constant harassment of Suaram being a one of the factors.

Suaram adviser Kua Kia Soong said the human rights NGO's rating of the government's human rights record for a particular year was based on its respect for civil and political rights.

NONE "We find that the report of the government for 2011 is worse than for 2010. So, the government will get a lower ranking as compared with 2010. The government failed in 2010 and it failed again in 2011.

"It looks as though the government is going to fail even more this year for its harassment of Suaram, because this is about freedom of association," Kua said at Suaram's launch of its Malaysia Human Rights Report 2011 at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall today.

He explained that the most important issues in human rights were detention without trial and freedom of assembly, association and expression.

Suaram has documented 27 detentions without trial in 2011, compared with 25 in 2010. It has also documented 25 cases of deaths in police custody last year, compared with 18 in 2010.

Unrealistic, ‘academic' language of the PM

According to Suaram executive director Nalini Elumalai, the government's new law, the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, restricts the people's freedom of assembly because of the strict conditions imposed.

NONE "The government have come up with a new law and it is restricting the peaceful assemblies and (our) right to assemble.

"Street protests are not allowed to those who are not Malaysians, those below 15 years old and for those below 21, you cannot even organise a protest," Nalini said.

She said the language used by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on human rights issues were very ‘academic', and not realistic.

"The language used by the PM is basically very academic, and we cannot see that in reality," she said at a press conference.

Suaram's Documentation and Monitoring coordinator Wong Kah Fai also called on the government to fulfil its promises for more substantial reforms instead of working on small financial incentives such as the 1Malaysia shops.