US religious investors call for release of Tian Chua and others
A coalition of US-based religious investors has urged the government to release Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua and other reformasi activists being held under the Internal Security Act.
The coalition, known as the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, told Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in a Feb 20 letter that it was "deeply concerned over the continued detention of human rights leader Chua and all those arrested under the ISA".
ICCR, which represents 275 Catholic, Protestant and Jewish shareholder organisations, said it is committed to promoting human rights and has filed resolutions and engaged in dialogues over a variety of issues.
Institutional investors who are members of ICCR include pension funds, endowments, hospital corporations, economic development funds and publishing companies, and they have a combined profolio valued at around US$110 billion (RM418 billion).
However, it could not be ascertained if any of the ICCR members have investments in Malaysia.
The coalition added that Chua was a colleague in the work for human rights and labour rights. It also noted that he had received an award from the National Human Rights Society in 1998.
"He and nine other pro-reform activists arrested in April 2001 have had no evidence presented against them.
"Further, there have been a series of credible reports of ill treatment, amounting to torture, of ISA detainees. This causes us grave concern over the well-being of Chua and other detainees," ICCR said.
Chua was among 10 people detained under the ISA for allegedly planning to topple the government by employing militant means. At present, six, including Chua, are undergoing a two-year detention.
Investment withdrawal
ICCR's move comes in the wake of an influential US pension fund's decision to withdraw its investment in Malaysia citing concern over the country's political stability, transparency and labour standards.
In a press statement yesterday, California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers) said it will be divesting from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines in favour of Poland and Hungary based on a new review process for emerging markets.
"The review of emerging markets is believed to be the first of its kind ever done by a public pension fund that looks beyond traditional economic factors and considers basic democratic principles," said Calpers whose assets total US$151.8 billion (RM577 billion), making it the largest investment fund in the US and third largest in the world.
Calpers' new investment guidelines requires its fund managers to take into account political stability, labour standards and transparency, including a free press and good accounting.
Calpers believes that its plan is the first of its kind by a public pension fund that looks beyond traditional economic factors and considers basic democratic principles.
"We now have in place a blueprint to examine which emerging markets can support institutional investment. It is a screen and an important entry point for investments into our portfolio that will help to protect our pensioners' assets," said the pension fund's investment committee chairperson Michael Flaherman.
RM380 million to be withdrawn
According to the Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ), Calpers would pull out some US$100 million (RM380 million) worth of investments in Malaysia gradually.
In the immediate term, the markets in the four countries are not expected to be affected significantly since Calpers' investments in Asia are small, said AWSJ .
According to the newspaper, Bangkok's main stock index suffered the most, closing down at nearly four percent, followed by less than one percent losses in Malaysia and Philippines while Jakarta gained 0.2 percent.
However, the move may have possible long-term effects on emerging Asian markets as it may discourage other big pension funds that are not already in the region.
"Calpers is considered a market leader that does things very well. They are standards that others aspire to," the newspaper quoted a director of a Hong Kong-based investment firm as saying.
The change in Calper's policy was due to the implementation of a new system of assessment which ranks 27 emerging markets on "country factors" such as political stability, and "market factors" such as regulation.
AWSJ said Calpers ranked Malaysia 24th on country factors.
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