Foreign Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar was taken to task for Malaysia's decision to abstain from voting for a new anti-torture treaty.

DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang said the minister should explain why Malaysia "sided with the Bush administration" by not voting for the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel and Unusual Treatment.

The optional protocol will allow international and national experts to conduct regular visits to places of detention within countries to assess the treatment of detainees and conditions of detention, and to recommend improvements.

"Malaysia's failure to vote on this important and innovative human rights measure is a blot on the human rights record of the country on the international stage," Lim said in a statement yesterday.

According to him, Malaysia should have given serious consideration by voting to support the passage of the treaty which had been in the making for 10 years. It was adopted on Dec 18 after 127 countries voted in favour, while four voted against and 42 abstained.

The leading opponent of the protocol was the US. Three other countries Nigeria, Palau and the Marshall Islands also voted against it.

Moral courage

Meanwhile, Penang-based social reform movement Aliran expressed its disappointment with Malaysia's abstention.

"We fail to see why the Malaysian government could not have voted in favour of the protocol, which is designed to help rather than condemn states," it said in a statement issued over the weekend.

"By voting for the protocol, Malaysia would have stood head and shoulders with those in the international community that had the moral courage to stand up for justice."

It also said the visits, by adequately mandated experts, would be preventive rather than reactive and thus would only make recommendations for changes required to prevent torture. Implementation of these "constructive proposals would be reviewed" through regular visits.

Aliran said only three Southeast Asian nations Indonesia, Cambodia and East Timor had the moral courage to distinguish themselves by voting in favour of the protocol.

"Malaysia's shameful abstention, on the other hand, sticks out like a sore thumb and speaks volumes of the government's attitude to torture and exposes its hypocritical, undemocratic and oppressive nature," it said.

The movement noted that the decision was not surprising given the harrowing accounts of detainees' experiences under the controversial Internal Security Act.

The optional protocol will be open for signature from Jan 1 and will come into force when the 20th country has ratified it.