Would "Malaysian King of Procrastination" do anything about SUHAKAM?

Well, here we have it - SUHAKAM also wants reforms - it wants to be given 'teeth' - and do not want to remain a 'toothless tiger'

But wait, who said this? Sadly, it is not the 'not-so-vocal' Chairperson, a former Attorney General of Malaysia, who served the government well during the 1987 Operation Lallang period, the Judicial Crisis of 1988 ....Abu Talib Othman but just one of the many HR Commissioners, Siva Subramaniam.

Faced with the threat of being downgraded by an international body, Malaysia's Human Rights Commission (suhakam) today asked the government for "teeth" so that the "toothless tiger" can bite.

Its commissioner Datuk Siva Subramaniam said they are not surprised that the threat has been made by the world body as even cabinet ministers have called them a "toothless tiger".

"Provide the teeth, then Suhakam can ensure that human rights are protected," he said, when approached by reporters at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum of the National Human Rights Institutions today. - Sun2Surf, 29/7/2008 - "Suhakam: Give the toothless tiger teeth to bite"

After some international review body says it, SUHAKAM seems to be just now responding and telling the government that the Act needs to be amended - and that our Human Rights Commission needs more "teeth" and reforms to be able to more effectively perform the role of a HR Commission.

And, what does this SUHAKAM's rep (or is it just Siva Subramaniam talking) say:-

TENURE needs to be increased to at least 5 years.

He said the Human Rights Commission Act 1999, under which Suhakam was formed, has limitations and needs to be amended. One of the limitations is that the commissioner's tenure of service is just two years while in many other countries it is five years.

GOVERNMENT should encourage HR Commissioners to speak out - but not penalize them for speaking out by not re-appointing them.

He said many people feel that if the commissioner "speaks his mind out, there he goes".

SUHAKAM definitely needs more ENFORCEMENT powers -- or just more powers. Suhakam's reccomendation must not be ignored but immediately acted upon.

"But Suhakam does not have enforcement powers. We make many discoveries during our visits (Suhakam's monitoring activities) but our suggestions are mostly recommendations and sometimes these recommendations are treated as nothing," he said.

He said in some countries, the Human Rights Commission has its own court and implements its powers and can give its own directives.

"It will be useless if we just make recommendations and they are not implemented," he said.

And what else....it is shocking to hear that SUHAKAM has raised all this matters to the government but the government has not given any positive response. (Does this mean the only response the government has given is negative responses?) Better some response than no response at all.

"Of course, some of these arguments are valid. The ball is at the government's feet. Suhakam had provided the advice (on providing the enforcement power) to the government," he said.

Suhakam had proposed this to the government in several meetings but there has not been any positive response.

Well, I really do not expect anything for so long as Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is Prime Minister - he is the "Malaysian King of Procrastination" - see what happen to that Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) -- whereby the deadline for implementation set by the the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police in 2005 was 31st May 2006. And let us not forget, this was something our PM said he would get implemented.

Well, it really would be good to hear what the Pakatan Rakyat would be doing about SUHAKAM reforms if it were to come into power come September 16 (or maybe after the next General Elections).