The Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) is pushing for debate on its annual report at next year’s parliamentary sitting in March.

The commission’s chairperson Hasmy Agam ( below ) said today they were already in discussions with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz over the proposal.

NONE "I have met with the minister and he is personally in favour of allowing a debate on our report," he told Malaysiakini during a courtesy call by commission members to the online newspaper’s office in Bangsar Utama, Kuala Lumpur.

Efforts to have Parliament set aside time to debate Suhakam’s annual report have failed time and again ever since the commission tabled its first report in 2001.

That year, Dewan Rakyat speaker Dr Mohamad Zahir Ismail rejected two motions for a debate saying that is was ‘not a specific nor an urgent matter’.

The move for a parliamentary debate is part of the to-do list of the newly-appointed Suhakam chairperson and his team of seven commissioners, all of whom work part-time.

More enforcement powers

Hasmy said the commission was also seeking to have full-time commissioners by the time his term ended in 2013.

"We want to propose to the government to restructure Suhakam to have either all full-time commissioners and a few part-time commissioners like professionals who cannot leave their jobs," he said.

They are also pressing the government to amend the Suhakam Act to allow for more enforcement powers.

anti-isa vigil in petaling jaya amcorp mall 2 "Some of our counterparts in the region have more powers than us. In Australia, they (its human rights commission) can even bring cases to court." he said.

In the meantime, he said the commission will hold watching briefs for cases involving human rights abuses.

They will also attend and observe public expressions related to human rights such as the anti-ISA candlelight vigil in Petaling Jaya earlier this year ( above ).

"In the case of that vigil, we believe they (the police) had not resorted to using things like water cannons because we were there," he said.