Human rights institution without commissioners for 17 days

KUALA LUMPUR: Suhakam has been without commissioners for 17 days now, which means there can be no public inquiries into any alleged human rights violations by the Government.

The last team, chaired by Tan Sri Hasmy Agam, signed out at midnight on April 25. The replacements have not been announced as yet.

Appointments to Suhakam are made by the Yang di Pertuan Agong, on the advice of the Prime Minister, after considering a list of candidates submitted by a Selection Committee chaired by the Chief Secretary to the Government.

However, this is not the first time that a delay has taken place.

Since the Suhakam Act was amended in 2009 to include a Selection Committee for greater transparency in selecting commissioners, there have been delays.

On June 7, 2010, The Star reported Suhakam had been without commissioners for 45 days and in 2013, the gap was 38 days.

According to sources, the next chairman could be a former Chief Secretary or a former diplomat, both of whom are highly regarded.

In his exit interview in Sunday Star on April 24, Hasmy said that the “quality of the candidates has been quite good” and expressed hope that “the selection will be finalised before I leave” but it is still unknown.

Asked yesterday, if Suhakam has been informed whether new commissioners have been appointed, the national human rights institution’s secretary Rodziah Abdul replied: “To date, the Government has not conveyed or informed the commission on the new appointments for the 2016-2019 session.”

From April 26 to May 12, she said Suhakam had received 36 complaints.

Asked what would happen to the new/pending complaints if there were no commissioners, Rodziah said the Complaints and Monitoring Division which supports the commission’s function of receiving and investigating complaints of alleged violations of human rights would continue as usual.

“All investigation work will be reported to the commission once they are in office.”

She acknowledged that there would not be a public inquiry even if all the criteria were met because “the decision to hold a public/national inquiry must be made by the commission”.

To a question, she said the chairman’s approval or signature was not necessary before payment could be made for the running of the office and staff salaries.

She added that the Act authorised the secretary to manage the administrative matters of the commission, including payments of operational costs like rentals and salaries.

“Therefore, all payments have been kept up to date from the time the recent commissioners’ term ended in April 2016.”