Dr M: Malaysia should only back limited human rights

By Yow Hong Chieh

October 27, 2011

Critics blame Dr Mahathir for clamping down on civil liberties and politicising public institutions during his 22-year tenure as prime minister. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 — Malaysia should support human rights only as much as it can and not pay heed to critics who ask for excessive rights, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

“In general, we have to support human rights but only as far as we’re able to,” he said after speaking at the National Entrepreneurs Corporation Bhd (PUNB) symposium here.

“If we want to give excessive rights like in the West, to the point where men can marry men and women can marry women, that’s not necessary.”

The former prime minister of 22 years was responding to criticisms of human rights movements in Malaysia by Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor at the Perkasa general assembly yesterday.

The former Inspector-General of Police (IGP) had likened the growth of such movements to the rise of Communism, adding that this would lead to possible strife as civil liberties activists did not respect the social contract.

Rahim is best remembered for giving former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim a black eye following the latter’s arrest under sodomy charges in 1998.

Anwar, who is now Opposition leader, had earlier been sacked from his post by Dr Mahathir for alleged corruption and engaging in “unnatural sex”.

Dr Mahathir also said today that Malaysia was a developing country with “certain restrictions” like its multiracial nature which prevented the adoption of greater human rights as practised in the West.

Mahathir was responding to criticisms of human rights movements in Malaysia by Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor at the Perkasa general assembly yesterday. — file pic

But he pointed out that even Western nations resorted to worse restrictions than Malaysia when push came to shove, citing the extra-judicial detainment of suspected Islamists at Guantanamo Bay.

“We detain people under ISA (Internal Security Act) but they detain people without laws ... and even torture them,” he said.

Some parties used human rights as an excuse to further their own political aims and not better people’s lives, he added.

Critics blame Dr Mahathir for clamping down on civil liberties and politicising public institutions like the judiciary and the police during his 22-year tenure.

He oversaw the arrest of 106 individuals under the ISA during the 1987 Ops Lalang crackdown, and later signed two-year detention orders in his capacity as home minister for 49 of them, including opposition veteran Lim Kit Siang, his son Lim Guan Eng and five other DAP MPs.

The 1960 security law, which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak intends to abolish, allows for detention without trial.

A 1989 amendment under Dr Mahathir’s rule removed the option for judicial review, granting the home minister absolute discretion to extend or reduce detention time.

A year earlier, Dr Mahathir had amended the Constitution to grant courts only such powers as Parliament might grant them, before sacking the Lord President, Tun Salleh Abas, and two other Supreme Court judges, triggering a constitutional crisis.