AFP/Herald Sun
January 22, 2012
MALAYSIA has fallen “far short” of upholding its pledges to allow civil liberties ahead of elections widely expected to be held soon, Human Rights Watch says.
Prime Minister Najib Razak has promised to grant greater civil rights by revising or abolishing several security laws, including the Internal Security Act which allows for detention without trial of those deemed security threats.
But activists and opposition leaders have dismissed his vows as ploys to regain at fresh polls expected this year votes lost in the last general election, where Najib’s Barisan Nasional had its most narrow ever win.
Human Rights Watch said on Sunday in its annual world report that the South-East Asian nation had last year “arbitrarily” detained critics, broken up a peaceful march for electoral reforms and replaced restrictions on free assembly “with even more draconian controls”.
“Malaysia’s leaders are fooling themselves by thinking they can backtrack on public promises to respect the rights to demonstrate peacefully and criticise the government without fear,” the group’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, said in a release.
“The more Prime Minister Najib and government politicians play their game of big talk, little action on rights, the more they should expect popular pushback.”
A government spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.
In its report, the New York-based group said that, despite government promises, human rights in Malaysia “remain tightly constrained”.
It also criticised the trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was acquitted by a high court this month of having sex with a male former aide.
Government lawyers are appealing against the verdict.
Human Rights Watch said the law, which makes sodomy a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison, should be repealed, and Anwar should never have been tried.
Najib’s Barisan Nasional has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957 but suffered unprecedented losses to Anwar’s opposition during the last elections in 2008 amid complaints of economic mismanagement, corruption and racial discrimination.