Saturday, December 13, 2008

SUHAKAM : DON'T BRUSH ASIDE GROUSES


Clear message: People attending the Human Rights Day celebration yesterday.
KUALA LUMPUR: He was a long-serving Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) worker. He lives in a low-cost house and has no sign of flaunting any wealth. Yet, the man who served with DBKL for 26 years and seven months and has documents to show he is an excellent worker has been detained under the Emergency Ordinance for purported drug trafficking. And with his family suffering, Suhakam are not amused.
“He has many children to support but is now in danger of losing his job and his pension. If the authorities have proof he’s trafficking, then charge him. Don’t put him in detention without trial,” Suhakam commissioner Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam. He said there had been several where whole families were ruined by the indiscriminate use of detention without trial.
“We visited his house. It was a low-cost house; there was nothing to indicate that he’s rich. His whole family told us he is not involved in drugs.
“Despite the lack of proof, the worker, who was the sole breadwinner in the family, was being detained for a year in a remote area in Pahang,” Siva said yesterday at the launch of the Human Rights Day celebration by Amnesty International Malaysia (AI-M).
Siva urged the Government to listen to the people when they ask for a review.He said the Government should not brush aside public complaints on the indiscriminate use of the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention) Ordinance.
“People are educated these days and need good answers,” he said.
Siva also asked for further investigations into the deaths of those in police custody, detention centres and rehabilitation centres.Citing the death of an Indian national at the Langkap detention centre on Thursday, Siva said illegal immigrants needed to be treated humanely.
“He asked repeatedly to go to hospital but was denied. This has to be investigated,” he said.
On the Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas (Jerit) People Cycling for Change expedition, Siva criticised the police for making the participants fill up a form which asked for their name, background and which “gang” they belonged to.
In her speech, AI-M executive director Nora Murat called on the authorities to conduct a comprehensive review of the Sedition Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, Societies Act, Universities and University Colleges Act, Police Act and Section 27 of the Penal Code.
She also called for a repeal of the ISA, Emergency Ordinance, Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures) Act 1958 and Restricted Residence Act 1933.
Related Story: Syed Hamid: Suhakam’s ISA review call’s perspective not wide enough

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