Suhakam hopes annual report will be debated in Parliament

KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) is hoping that its annual report will be debated at the next sitting of Parliament in July.

Acting Suhakam chairman Jerald Joseph (pic) said they wanted it to be debated because it was part of Suhakam's accountability to Parliament as stated in the Act that governs it.

"How can Malaysians and MPs not be participating in issues of human rights of the country. Now it's between us and the government... This is a Malaysian document," he told reporters after the public release of Suhakam's 2018 annual report on Friday (April 19).

The report was tabled in Parliament on April 11. Suhakam's reports have never been debated in parliament.

Jerald said that for the report to be debated, a motion needed to be tabled for it to be debated by de facto law minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong.

"We are prepared to be on hand to answer whatever questions he needs," he said.

Jerald also said that in a good system, the report would be tabled and debated at once.

The Pakatan manifesto stated it would debate the Suhakam report in Parliament.

Jerald also said the commission needed additional funding and they had made a request to the Finance Ministry and Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

They are hoping for a budget of RM16mil a year. They were allocated RM12mil for each of the past two years.

Pakatan's manifesto also pledged that financial support for the activities of Suhakam and other human rights bodies will be improved.

Jerald said Suhakam has three offices in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, employing 85 employees nationwide.

Last year, the commission received a total of 1,180 complaints, an almost 50% increase compared to the previous year.

Out of the number, Suhakam decided that 131 of the complaints fell out of its jurisdiction.

Of the 1049 complaints accepted by Suhakam, 581 have been completed while the rest are still being investigated.

Most of the complaints dealt with the right to nationality with 413 cases being registered, the majority of which were in Sabah.

This was followed by complaints on arbitrary arrest, detention and exile.