Former Suhakam commissioner Mehrun Siraj passes away

Former Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) commissioner Mehrun Siraj passed away peacefully early this morning at her home in Petaling Jaya. She was 75.

Born on July 19, 1945, the wife of former Malaysian Bar president Sulaiman Abdullah had been suffering from a number of serious medical conditions and spent the last year with multiple long admissions in hospital, with her condition declining, said her son playwright and National University of Singapore associate professor Huzir Sulaiman.

A former professor of law, she also served as an advocate and solicitor, consultant for UN agencies and was among the first group of Suhakam commissioners serving from 1999 to 2002.

"In the early hours of the morning today, my mother Mehrun passed away peacefully at home. She had been ill for a long time," wrote Huzir in a Facebook post this afternoon.

He said his late mother was born into a tradition of activism, education, and social service in the family.

"Her father Haji M Siraj was a teacher, headmaster, religious scholar, and leader in the Boy Scouts and St Johns Ambulance movements.

Her mother Khatijun Nissa Dawood was a pioneering feminist and Muslim women's rights advocate.

Mehrun attended Raffles Girls School, primary and secondary, and then transferred to the Raffles Institution for her A-levels. She entered the University of Singapore (as it was then known) in 1965 to study law and graduated in 1969.

"In university, she was known to be brilliant and beautiful, and she broke many a heart when she began going out with the man who she would eventually marry - my father.

"Upon graduating, she began chambering with David Marshall, Singapore's former chief minister, but left after a few months to take up a teaching job at ITM in Malaysia. 

"She told me many decades later that she found Marshall's old-school sexism intolerable. She was from a family of strong women who had no qualms about expressing their views, and she didn't hesitate to tell him off," Huzir said.

Mehrun served at Universiti Malaya (UM) for just short of 20 years, including stints in London studying for her LLM and PhD at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

"She was the first family law lecturer at UM, and eventually became the pre-eminent Malaysian scholar in that field. Her scholarship was of such a high standard, and her writing so clear and fluent, that she was accorded the uniquely Malaysian 'honour' of being regularly plagiarised by other academics," he said. 

Mehrun resigned from UM in 1992 and became a visiting professor at Bond University in Australia; a consultant on Family Law and Population Law for the UN Development Programme; and then in 1996 became a professor and dean of the Law Faculty at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

"She was a staunch advocate of awarding places and scholarships based on merit, not on ethnicity, which resulted in a large intake of ethnic Chinese Malaysians, a move she had to defend against certain entrenched interests. 

"She later became an adjunct professor at the International Islamic University," he recalled.

Mehrun also served parallel roles in civil society and public service. She was president of the Association of Women Lawyers; a longtime exco member of the Medico-Legal Society; and a member of the National Council for the Integration of Women in Development, among many other organisations.

"Among her most notable involvements were as a member of the Law and Ethics Committee of the Malaysian Aids Council. She drafted the Malaysian Aids Charter in 1995, a landmark document calling for the rights of persons living with HIV to be respected.

"She also travelled around the country to advocate for the removal of discrimination against sex workers and members of the LGBT community who were living with HIV," recalled Huzir.

"She was one of the first commissioners of Suhakam, where, perhaps contrary to the desires of the government that had set it up, she fought tirelessly for human rights," he added.

He referred to her role as lead author of the Report on the Kesas Highway Incident, which comprehensively investigated and laid bare the failings of the security forces in their violence and abuse of power in breaking up a major protest.

"She was unrelenting in her gathering of evidence and her cross-examination of protestors and senior police officers alike.

"My mother stood four feet and 11 inches high, but had a big smile, a calm, warm energy, and tremendous courage," Huzir said.

He recalled an incident in 2008 when she was speaking in a forum on the Bar Council on freedom of religion when the hall was stormed by a mob who accused the Bar of being anti-Islam.

"With the other panellists being shouted down and the atmosphere turning ugly, my mother went to the microphone, this indomitable little lady, and told off the protestors. 'You represent Umno, but I represent the Muslims! I am ashamed of your behaviour. Islam does not condone this behaviour. Do not misuse Islam! Sit down and behave yourself! Kurang ajar! (Badly brought up - a serious rebuke in Malay culture)'."

Mehrun's son shared that away from public life, she was a warm and funny person, who was fond of literature, classical music (Indian, Chinese, and Western) and the theatre.

"She loved Kundera and Soyinka and Nabokov, and also Bob Marley and the Bee Gees. She was deeply religious but also open-minded and open-hearted; tolerant and accepting of all faiths and all identities.

"She bore her many health issues with great charm and cheerfulness. She has made me who I am, and I will treasure her memory.

"While my mother was always immensely brave and cheerful about her medical issues, the last two months have been particularly difficult for her, and I am relieved that she is no longer suffering," he added.

Mehrun is also survived by her mother Khatijun, daughter-in-law Claire Wong Chui Ling and siblings Zaibun, Anwar and Naeem.

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