Chairman of the Malaysian National Human Rights Commission (Suhakam), Musa Hitam delivered a very statesmanly speech on human rights in Malaysia at a dinner organised by the Malaysia-Australia Business Council (MABC) in Kuala Lumpur on the evening of May 6.

Musa, who is also 'the first' former deputy prime Minister and a former Home Affairs minister, spoke candidly and wittily and at length on the subject to the some 150 businessmen, senior foreign diplomats and invited guests present.

Some of his very pertinent remarks and discerning observations deserve, in my opinion, more public discourses and serious reflections.

The general thrust of his argument is that the development of human rights in Malaysia can be divided into three stages or phases. According to Musa, the first stage was when the land was a British colony, while the second was characterised by a prolonged period of anti-communism, namely that epoch spanning from 1957 when the country gained Independence to 1989, when the government of Malaysian signed the historic peace accord with the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM).

For students of contemporary international relations and politics, the second period also largely coincided with the global Cold War which lasted for 44 years.

The Cold War began with Sir Winston Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech on March 5, 1946 in Fulton, Missouri warning of 'Soviet aggression' and President Truman's policy of 'containing communism' worldwide (known as the 'Truman Doctrine').

It ended with the disintegration of the former Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) and the demise of the monopolistic Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

Of course, in between, there was the thawing of relations between the liberal democratic United States and the socialist China, as well as the brave market reforms initiated by the pragmatic Deng Xiaoping in 1978 after the death of the senile, paranoid and megalomaniac Mao in 1976.

An epoch over

With a Cold War background, Musa was not apologetic about the infringement of human rights in dealing with what he called the 'anti-national communist threat' which was armed, and which vowed to overthrow the democratic system by violence and subversion.

Some Malaysians might still disagree with the assertion that all violations of human rights in the Cold War were right and morally legitimate but the debate is now largely academic. What is really pertinent now is, in my opinion, the continuation of the process of psychological healing and human reconciliation among the ageing veterans on both sides.

In this regard, we must be fair and commend the government of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim for concluding the historic peace accords with the Communist Party of Malaya in December, 1989 amidst the opposition of bigoted Cold Warriors in the establishment.

Even Rahim Noor, the former IGP who is now jailed for physically assaulting Anwar Ibrahim, should be commended for bringing the Cold War in Malaysia to an end.

On the other side, Chin Peng (Ong Boon Hua), the legendary leader of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) which allied with the British and Western powers in the great war against fascism, and later secretary-general of CPM, was allowed not only to enter Britain and Australia freely and legally in late 1998 and 1999, but also to be interviewed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

He spoke openly to journalists in London and was also invited to deliver public lectures on history at the Australian National University in Canberra. An epoch is therefore over.

Cold War relic

We have thus, as Musa pointed out in his speech, entered into the third period of human rights development in Malaysia when opposition parties, leaders and activities can no longer be characterised or conceived as 'anti-national' or 'subversive'.

This is a period, according to Musa, when all political parties, leaders and activities are democratic and national in nature, and when human rights, especially political rights, should be safeguarded accordingly.

The post-Cold War new view on politics should be that, despite the many differences in party affiliations and ideologies, we differ only in our opinions on how best the country should be managed. It is no longer a situation of 'black-and-white' and 'us-versus-them'. We are all Malaysians now.

Seen in this very enlightened perspective proposed by Musa, it is quite clear to us that Umno, PAS, MCA, DAP and Keadilan (I rank them in this sequence according to the objective criteria of the total number of parliamentary votes obtained in the last general elections) are all national parties of Malaysians operating within the democratic and constitutional system.

It is therefore, in my opinion, wrong and anti-democratic for any quarter, including Umno, the mainstream media, the police, the military, the civil service, the business community and perhaps the judiciary to view, insinuate or treat political parties outside the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) as 'anti-national' and 'subversive'.

This Cold War attitudinal relic must be thrown into the dustbin of history.

Partisan armed band

In my opinion, to translate this understanding or awareness of the new realities into daily practice, it means, that above all, the police, especially its Special Branch, must pay due respect to all His Majesty's Opposition, its leaders, members and supporters.

It also means the police must always maintain political, psychological, ideological and emotional equidistance between the BN and the Alternative Front.

In other words, the police, especially the Special Branch, must not be used and seen to be used by any political party or leader to be a political digit or a partisan armed band in the peaceful competition for democratic powers, or public discourses.

Those police officers, including those in the Special Branch, who are inclined politically to one party or its ideology should resign and join the party as ordinary citizens. To hide behind the police force the play partisan politics is as undesirable, dishonourable, despicable and shameful as the Roman Praetorian Guards or the Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia (Abri) under Suharto.

As an unelected institution supported financially by the people whose support is divided between the BN and Alternative Front, the police must realise that to change or not to change the government is the final decision of the people.

Even if the government is changed, the police is still needed as a state institution to combat crime and to maintain rational law and normal order domestically as external security is guaranteed by the army, navy and air force.

Genuine reforms

As both the BN and Alternative Front are supportive of the system of constitutional monarchy, and as the security of territorial integrity is guaranteed by the armed forces, the role and function of the police's Special Branch should be confined and subject to a higher degree of ministerial and bipartisan Parliamentary control.

The Special Branch of the police should not be allowed to behave and act beyond and above normal laws and international standards of accepted behaviour of security personnel and institutions. It should not be an unelected government.

Time has come for genuine reforms in the police force and the Special Branch which is a product par excellence of the British colonialism and the Cold War. The police force must be national and professional.

Any image of it being the private armed band of Umno, MCA, MIC and the Barisan Nasional must be erased.

JAMES WONG WING ON is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and also a leading Mandarin-Chinese opinion writer and columnist. He won the Outstanding Journalist award of the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) in 1998 and 1999. He read economics and political science at the Monash University in Australia from 1983 to 1986. All views expressed herein are his own, and are open to criticisms and debates.