Comango to sue Home Ministry over ban
(MM) – Refuting it championed anti-Islamic values, a Malaysian coalition of human rights groups said today it will sue the Home Ministry for declaring it illegal.
The Coalition of Malaysian NGOs in the Universal Periodic Review Process (Comango) also pointed out that the secretary-general of the Home Ministry had declared it as an “unlawful organisation” yesterday without attaching a gazetted order by the Home Minister, as required under the law.
“Under S5 of the Societies Act 1966, only the Home Minister may by order declare a society to be unlawful if a society is being used for purposes prejudicial to or incompatible with the interest of the security of Malaysia, public order or morality,” said Comango in a statement.
“Among the reasons given by the SG (secretary-general) to declare Comango unlawful is that we are championing rights that deviate from Islam. This is untrue,” the coalition added.
The Home Ministry accused Comango yesterday of promoting un-Islamic sexual rights, such as the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) minorities.
Comango also criticised the other reasons cited by the Home Ministry for the ban, as the ministry had said that some of the endorsees of Comango’s report for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which is a United Nations human rights peer review held every four and a half years, are not Islam-based organisations, and that some endorsees were not registered, and also that Comango itself was not registered with the Registrar of Societies.
“These reasons are not in accordance with S5 of the Societies Act 1966,” said Comango.
“Comango is appalled that the government is using Islam as a political tool to silence criticisms of human rights violations, and to demonise human rights defenders. It is bowing to alarmist tactics and is complicit in fanning rising and extremely divisive intolerance in this country,” it added.
Comango pointed out that the UPR process involves Muslim-majority countries, many of which it said have acceded to human rights treaties that were branded un-Islamic by “extremist groups” here.
“We are concerned that the government has not only adopted the language and positions of these extremist groups, but also facilitated hate speech by funding groups such as Perkasa. The media statement by the Home Ministry affirms our view that the government appears to be beholden to these extremist groups,” said Comango.
Co-ordinated by Empower and human rights watchdog Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), Comango submitted its report for the UPR in March 2013.
The report touched on issues such as the administration of justice; freedom of religion, expression and participation; rights to work, health and education; indigenous and migrants’ rights; and discrimination involving sexual orientation and race.
Comango also noted today that it had engaged with Putrajaya several times since submitting its first report to the UN Human Rights Council in 2008.
“Comango met with members of the Malaysian government delegation during Malaysia’s review in Geneva in October 2013, as well as before the review, in September,” it added.
The human rights coalition, which is made of 54 NGOs, slammed the ban as a violation of its rights to freedom of expression and association.
Lawyers have told The Malay Mail Online that Putrajaya cannot arbitrarily outlaw a coalition under the Societies Act 1966 and that Comango members must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, even if there were grounds to the argument that some of the groups were not legally registered.
They also noted that the High Court had, in July 2012, ruled that Bersih 2.0 is a legal society under Societies Act 1966 although it was not officially registered, overturning Putrajaya’s order to outlaw it in 2011.
