Amnesty decries Comango ban
Putrajaya is accused of increasingly taking its cue from hardline groups
(FMT) – Amnesty International (AI) has denounced Putrajaya for banning the Malaysian human rights group Comango, describing the move as an assault on freedom.
“Outlawing Comango is a deeply disturbing action aimed at silencing important critical voices that have advocated on the world stage for Malaysia to uphold international human rights law and standards,” AI said in a press statement issued by Hazel Galang-Folli, a Malaysian researcher with the human rights watchdog.
“This move seems less about enforcing registration requirements and more about removing a thorn in the side of the authorities.
“Labelling human rights groups ‘illegal’ only adds to an already long list of human rights violations that Malaysia’s authorities need to remedy, as the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process again highlighted last year.”
Galang-Folli pointed out that freedom of religion was one of the key issues discussed during Malaysia’s UPR review.
“It is concerning to see the Malaysian authorities increasingly taking their cue from hardline religious groups and others seeking to silence those who espouse views that differ from their own agenda.”
DAP has also condemned the ban, saying yesterday’s statement by the Home Ministry reeked of a similar decision in 2011, when the then minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, declared the election watchdog Bersih illegal.
“It appears that the new Home Minister, Zahid Hamidi, is attempting to outdo his predecessor with the same stunt despite the fact that Bersih has successfully reversed the Home Minister’s order,” said the party’s publicity chief, Tony Pua.
In 2012, the Kuala Lumpur High Court quashed Hishammuddin’s order on the ground that his decision was “tainted with irrationality”.
“Hence, clearly, the BN ministers are once bitten, twice the fool, for Zahid intends to taint himself with matching irrationality,” Pua said in a press release.
He said Zahid had succumbed to pressures from “extreme right wing elements” within Umno, Perkasa and Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia, which are among groups that have accused Comango of promoting unnatural sex and threatening the position of Islam in Malaysia.
