'We can't bite and it's all your fault'

As the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) marks its 10th anniversary, chairperson Abu Talib Othman laments that it is still unable to go beyond making recommendations to the government - most of which are ignored.

But, he said, Suhakam is not to blame because it cannot function beyond the law that governs it. Since this was created by legislators elected by the public, he said the onus is on the electorate to vote for those who can rectify the situation.

“(We are considered a) toothless tiger in the sense that we don’t have the power to bite and we created in such a way (by Parliament),” Abu Talib told a press conference on the sidelines of an event in Kuala Lumpur to mark the anniversary.

Yet, he insisted that the commission is influential as it had helped formulate the law against human trafficking and influenced the government to amend Article 8 of the federal constitution to protect women against discrimination.

The function today was marred by a boycott by 42 NGOs over Suhakam’s apparent poor performance in protecting and promoting human rights.

They included leading rights groups like Sisters-in-Islam, Federation of Consumer Associations of Malaysia, Suaram, All Women's Action Society and Amnesty International.

Boycott: So what?

Abu Talib brushed aside the boycott, citing media reports as saying the main reason for it was because Suhakam had not supported the rally against the Internal Security Act held on Aug 1.

He explained that the rally was deemed illegal by the police and that Suhakam monitors were not deployed due to the risk of arrest. In addition, the commission did not want to be construed as condoning an illegal assembly.

“We cannot behave like a NGO. We have to respect the law,” he said.

Speaking to reporters later, commissioner Cheam Heng Keng claimed that only 10 organisations had boycotted the event.

She also claimed that a representative of Suaram, one of the main movers of the boycott, was present. However, she was unable to qualify both claims when asked to do so.

“As you can see, there is a full house today. The (absence of the) 10 did not make any difference,” said Cheam, who was among the organisers.