Five Malaysian Human Rights (Suhakam) commissioners, including the chairperson and his deputy, must resign over their "inaction" in failing to hold an inquiry into the racial clashes in Petaling Jaya Selatan which resulted in six deaths and scores injured, said a political party today.

Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim) pro-tem secretary general P Uthayakumar said the commissioners should resign as "they are unable to act without fear or favour".

Uthayakumar said chairperson Musa Hitam, his deputy Harun Hashim and commissioners Anuar Zainal Abidin, Hamdan Adnan and Mehrun Siraj, were unable to uphold justice and human rights for all Malaysians.

"It is regretfully noted that despite over 150 days since the tragedy, Suhakam has made no effort or hardly any effort nor shown concern for the incident," said Uthayakumar in a statement.

Prim has been repeatedly calling Suhakam to carry out an inquiry into the clashes to determine the causes and the persons responsible for clashes, affecting mostly Indians, which lasted for four days since March 8.

More than 600 police personnel were stationed at the affected areas to maintain order and peace. The police arrested about 220 people who were believed to be involved in the clashes. Some have been brought to the courts to be charged for their involvement in the incident.

Most of them claimed trial to offences under the 1958 Corrosive and Explosive Substances and Offensive Weapons Act, 1967 Police Act and the Penal Code.

Selective

Uthayakumar said that of those arrested, none were charged with murder, although several persons were charged and convicted for unlawful assembly and possessing weapons.

Uthayakumar also alleged that Suhakam was practising "selective inquiry" by only investigating certain complaints.

"It is totally unbecoming and unjustified ... the commission should not sideline the Indian victims of the racial clashes," he said.

He added that the excuses given by Suhakam - that it is short of staff and still waiting for reports from government and non-governmental organisations on the incident - were unreasonable.

Suhakam informed Prim on July 17 that it will have to study various reports on the incident before considering its next course of action and sought Prim's assistance in helping to get more information from the victims.

However, Prim rejected this request, claiming that Suhakam has sufficient material on the clashes from the two memoranda and other reports submitted by the party to the commission.

Legal suit

Today, Uthayakumar told malaysiakini that despite the "facts and evidence from the clashes being crystal clear and with the facts speaking for themselves, Suhakam seems to be totally oblivious to the gross violations of human rights in this tragedy".

"We have held four meetings with these commissioners separately and have given them two memoranda consisting of photographs and a video tape of injuries suffered by the victims.

"The incident was not 'racial clashes' as claimed by the government. Our investigations and findings point that it was an unprovoked brutal racial attack targeted at the Indian community in the area by an armed group of people from outside the area," said Uthayakumar.

He also said that Prim was in the process of preparing a letter of demand for Suhakam asking the commission to start an inquiry into the attacks.

"Failing which, we will then proceed with a legal suit against them to compel them to have an inquiry," added Uthayakumar.