DAP national vice-chairman M Kulasegaran renewed his call for the setting up of a human rights court which he said was "imperative in the light of the growing incidence of rights violations suffered by Malaysians from the bottom of the social totem pole."

The Ipoh Barat MP had raised the issue of a human rights court in Parliament earlier this week but de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz deflected the call by arguing that such a measure would be redundant because of the existence of the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

NONE In the exchange that ensued between the two legislators, Kulasegaran ( left ) described Suhakam as a liberal innovation that has sadly not fulfilled its aims, while Nazri parried Kula's argument by claiming that just because the government did not heed all of Suhakam'c recommendations, it did not mean it mothballed the lot.

As extenuation, Nazri cited the repeal of the Internal Security Act, which Suhakam had recommended, as an instance of the government's openness towards the commission's initiatives.

The much-reviled ISA was replaced on July 31 by a new law, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act.

Kulasegaran said he did not intend to deride the purpose nor underrate the value of Suhakam's work but felt the "correlation between the commission's recommendations and the distressing and mounting reality of rights violations among marginalised Malaysians was too grave to ignore."

Rare bipartisan effort

NONE The DAP legislator who last year collaborated with Nazri ( right ) in a rare bipartisan effort to gain Malaysia's accession to the International Criminal Court - an step endorsed in principle by the cabinet but apparently stalled by attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail's reservations - said the creation of a human rights court would be a logical extension to Suhakam's endeavours thus far.

"Suhakam can continue to exist as a kind of prod to the national conscience but a human rights court must of necessity be balm for the wounds inflicted on the rights of aggrieved individuals," argued Kulasegaran.

He referred to the latest case of a custodial death in Selangor and the slapping of Orang Asli kids who were not reverential enough during prayer time in a school in Gua Musang recently as "rights violations too grave for a sensitised public to ignore."

"A human rights court is an idea whose time has come in this country. It would be an emblem of our growing sensitivity and civility," he remarked.

Kulasegaran said the existence of such a court in countries like South Africa and Indonesia tends to make its absence in Malaysia a factor in our discredit.