The government should stop harassing Suaram if it is sincere in upholding human rights, said one of the NGO's founding members Sivarasa Rasiah.

He was making reference to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's opening speech at an international law conference on Wednesday last week, where the premier claimed to have upheld human rights through his law reforms, but also urged Malaysians to judge him "not by what I say, but what I do."

NONE "They (the government) should listen to (Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) chairperson) Hasmy Agam's ( right ) advice. If they are sincere about that (upholding human rights), then stop this immediately.

"You can't be saying the one thing and doing another thing," said Sivarasa.

Suhakam had recently expressed concern about investigations on Suaram by several government agencies, saying that human rights defenders should be able to operate freely, including receiving foreign funding.

P olice report lodged in Muar

Sivarasa, who is also the Subang MP, was speaking to Malaysiakini after giving his statement to the Registrar of Societies (ROS) in Putrajaya today.

He said he was called based on a police report lodged in Muar, alleging that Suaram had received foreign funding, which is supposedly an offence.

Besides denying that it is an offence to receive foreign funds, Sivarasa said it became apparent during his 95 minute interrogation that the main thrust of the investigation was to establish whether Suaram is an illegal society.

Meanwhile, Suaram secretariat member Cynthia Gabriel pointed out that Suaram is beyond the jurisdiction of the ROS because Section 2 of the Societies Act excludes entities registered as companies.

She was similarly grilled today for about 140 minutes, and had also been interrogated by the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) over Suaram's activities last week.

Cynthia, a former executive director of Suaram said that the government has simply "rounding up" more government agencies against Suaram after CCM failed to uncover anything incriminating.

"They are looking for demons where there are none. Stop investigating because it is an exercise in futility," she said.

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