The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) is to discuss whether or not to publicise a 93-page report containing the government's responses to its recommendations and observations submitted over the past three years.

Suhakam, which has consistently bemoaned the lack of official response to its annual and periodic reports, received the document three months ago..

Information and public relation committee chairperson Zainah Anwar said the document had never been considered for release.

"A lot of it is a repeat or stating of the obvious, rather than the offering of practical solutions," she said when contacted today.

"(Although) there are some areas that we are not happy with, we are looking at how best to respond to the official response."

The responses, compiled by the Foreign Ministry, have been handed over to Suhakam's issue-based working groups for deliberation.

"I will definitely raise the matter during the monthly meeting next week, as to whether the government's feedback should be made public," Zainah added.

The document covers 25 areas including conditions in prisons and police lock-ups, the Kesas highway report, rights of indigenous people in Sarawak, rights of young and remand prisoners, and the rights of the disabled.

Detention conditions

On Saturday, Suhakam's education working group chairperson Prof Chiam Heng Keng presented an overview of the responses during a national consultation meeting entitled 'Suhakam after three years'.

The third annual meeting to date, it was organised by Era Consumer, Aliran and Consumers Association of Penang to evaluate the commission's role and achievements.

In her paper, a copy of which was obtained by malaysiakini , she said the government had not responded to all the recommendations in its 2003 annual report, including the call to repeal and replace the Internal Security Act.

"(But) the 93-page report suggests that the government is not ignoring Suhakam's recommendations and reports, (although) admittedly many of the responses are not what Suhakam expects or hopes for," she said.

She said the government had rejected the suggestion to remove the screen separating family members from detainees at the Kamunting Detention Centre, because the same procedure is applied to visitors at other detention centres.

"It (the screen) is to prevent objects from being handed over to the detainees," Chiam said.

The government has, however, allocated RM20 million to alleviate problems linked to over-crowded police lock-ups and the lack of basic amenities, in the wake of Suhakam's observations.

Chiam said the government has compiled 15 pages of feedback on the rights of young offenders, but she did not elaborate on this in her paper.

Indigenous rights

On the rights of Sarawak's indigenous people, the government - alleging that some of Suhakam's claims were incorrect - noted that these communities have to change their idea of basic economy and rid themselves of a cukup makan sendiri (self-sufficiency) mindset.

Issues to which the government did not respond at all were press freedom, proposed amendments to the Suhakam Act, the Rohingya community here, and human rights education and information.

Chiam said five more issues are awaiting the government's response, adding that "probably these five areas a re viewed as less important than the others".

Civil society groups participating in the evaluation meeting had criticised Suhakam for not releasing the much-awaited feedback, and called for more transparency.

Meanwhile, Suhakam is pondering what stand to take with regard to a directive requiring all its official requests to government agencies to be sent through the Foreign Ministry. The order was issued in April.

A Suhakam delegation led by chairperson Abu Talib Othman met Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar in Putrajaya two weeks ago, but the ministry insisted on maintaining the status quo.

When contacted for details of the meeting, Suhakam complaints and inquiry working group chairperson Prof Hamdan Adnan said they were waiting for a letter from the cabinet.

"The Foreign Minister (Syed Hamid Albar) told us that our case is before the cabinet. We will discuss what stand to take on this at the next commission meeting."