New Suhakam chair to be announced after 10-month wait

PARLIAMENT | After a 10-month wait, the government will finally announce the new Suhakam chairperson.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) M Kulasegaran told the Dewan Rakyat this evening that the process to select and appoint a new chair for the human rights commission has reached its final stage.

According to Kulasegaran (above), the selection process took into consideration a recent amendment to the Suhakam Act, which requires commissioners to be free from any active involvement in politics and must not be members of any political party.

"A selection committee meeting to select a new Suhakam chair was held on June 7 as per Section 11A of the Suhakam Act.

"The proposal to appoint a new chairperson is now in its final stage, and the new chairperson will be announced soon," he said.

Delay in appointment

The deputy minister addressed the issue of the new Suhakam chairperson when delivering his winding-up speech on the Suhakam annual report.

When debating the report last week, several MPs raised questions regarding the delay in appointing a new chair for Suhakam.

They demanded the government explain why the new Suhakam chairperson has not been appointed since the position became vacant in August last year.

Its previous chair Rahmat Mohamad voluntarily resigned effective Aug 31.

Rahmat stepped down from the position a little over two months after several allegations were made against him, ranging from racism to abuse of power.

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