Amnesty International Report 2000 - Malaysia

Head of state: Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Alhaj
Head of government: Mahathir Mohamad
Capital: Kuala Lumpur
Population: 21.8 million
Official language: Bahasa Malaysia
Death penalty: retentionist

Political tensions, heightened by the trials of former deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, intensified in expectation of general elections, eventually called in November. The authorities continued to apply laws restricting rights to peaceful expression, assembly and association. Malaysia's former police chief was charged with assaulting Anwar Ibrahim in custody, but reports of the ill-treatment of other prisoners of conscience held incommunicado were not adequately investigated. Police used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations amid persistent reports of the ill-treatment of detained protesters. Hundreds of demonstrators were tried on charges of illegal assembly or rioting and dozens were imprisoned or fined. Students involved in the demonstrations were disciplined by university authorities. At least one person was sentenced to death.

Background

Public acceptance of government justifications for the restriction of individual rights and liberties was shaken by events following Anwar Ibrahim's dismissal from office in September 1998. The detention of Anwar Ibrahim and his supporters under the Internal Security Act (ISA), the ill-treatment of detainees in custody, and the use by police of excessive force in dispersing peaceful demonstrators prompted public questioning of state institutions and fuelled calls for "reformasi " (reform). In April groups supportive of reformasi founded the Parti Keadilan Nasional (PKN), National Justice Party, and later formed an electoral alliance with other opposition parties. However, in the November general elections the ruling Barisan Nasional, National Front, coalition won a two-thirds parliamentary majority. Divisions in the ethnic Malay community were reflected in significant electoral advances made by the Parti Islam Sa-Malaysia (PAS), Islamic Party of Malaysia.

Prisoners of conscience; ill-treatment of detainees

Calls were renewed for the repeal of the ISA, which allows detention without charge for up to two years, renewable indefinitely, of anyone considered a potential threat to national security. At least 27 prisoners of conscience were detained under the ISA from September 1998 to early 1999 in connection with Anwar Ibrahim and the reformasi movement. All were released from ISA detention before the end of their

60-day interrogation period, but a number, including Anwar Ibrahim, continued to be detained under separate criminal charges or were rearrested.

In April, after a four-month trial, Anwar Ibrahim was convicted of corrupt practices (using his ministerial office to interfere with a police investigation into alleged sexual misconduct) and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. AI concluded that the charges against him were politically motivated and a pretext to remove him from public life. This conclusion was reinforced by the unfair conduct of his trial, including the public undermining by government leaders of his right to be presumed innocent, the intimidation of his defence team, and procedural decisions during the trial.

In January prisoner of conscience Munawar Anees, a Pakistani academic, was released after serving three months of a six-month sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty in September 1998 to having "allowed himself to be sodomized by Anwar Ibrahim". Sukma Darmawan, Anwar Ibrahim's adopted brother, convicted at the same time after confessing to the same offence, was released on bail in December 1998. New charges of sodomy were brought against Anwar Ibrahim and Sukma Darmawan in April, who went on joint trial in June. The judge ruled that Sukma Darmawan's 1998 confession was admissible as evidence despite his testimony of serious physical and psychological ill-treatment by police. The trial had not been completed at the end of 1999.

AI continued to call for full, open and independent investigations into all reports of ill-treatment of detainees. Although Anwar Ibrahim's claims of assault and his visible facial bruising in September 1998 led to a Royal Commission of Inquiry in February, which found that he had been assaulted by the Inspector General of Police, other credible allegations of ill-treatment, at times amounting to torture, were not properly investigated. Munawar Anees and Sukma Darmawan stated that they had been subjected to severe physical and psychological pressure, including being stripped, sexually humiliated, struck and threatened with indefinite ISA detention. Abdul Malik Hussein, a supporter of Anwar Ibrahim, also stated that he was stripped and beaten, humiliated and forced to drink water tainted with urine after being detained under the ISA in September 1998.The authorities subsequently filed perjury charges against Sukma Darmawan and two other men who had complained of ill-treatment during the course of police investigations into Anwar Ibrahim.

Two other prisoners of conscience were released during the year. Che Kamarulzaman Ismail, the last of seven Shi'a Muslims ordered detained under the ISA for two years in 1998 for allegedly posing a threat to "national security and Muslim unity", was set free, reportedly in May. In August former parliamentarian Lim Guan Eng, imprisoned in 1998 for sedition and "spreading false news" concerning a statutory rape case involving a government minister, was released. As a convicted criminal he was disqualified from his parliamentary seat and prohibited from standing for parliament for five years.

Right of peaceful assembly and association

Periodic demonstrations in support of Anwar Ibrahim and reformasi continued on a reduced scale in Kuala Lumpur. Most of the demonstrations were peaceful, but police repeatedly used excessive force during dispersal operations, including unprovoked assaults on participants, using fists, batons and canes. Additionally there were persistent reports of ill-treatment, including the beating and kicking of protesters, immediately after arrest and in police station detention cells (lock-ups). Many detainees were denied access to legal counsel before their remand hearings.

More than 1,000 people were reportedly arrested between September 1998 and June 1999 for allegedly participating in illegal assemblies or rioting. At least 334 were charged, and the first of eight separate mass trials began in January. Most of the defendants were acquitted, although at least 30 were found guilty of illegal assembly and sentenced to imprisonment or fines. In September, 14 people, including leading members of opposition parties, were arrested after a rally which had led to some violent incidents. Eight were held in custody before being charged with illegal assembly. University and college students accused of participating in illegal assemblies faced suspension or expulsion under legislation prohibiting students from participating in any political activity without permission.

Opposition parties and non-governmental groups continued to complain about the refusal by the authorities to issue permits for public meetings. In April an indoor forum on reformasi to be addressed by academics was cancelled after police refused to issue a permit, and in May a number of planned PKN meetings had their licences revoked at the last minute.

Curbs on freedom of expression

The threat of government prosecutions for allegedly seditious statements, or for printing "false news", continued to curb freedom of expression. In May the Attorney General warned that those who criticized his office for "selective prosecutions" could be charged with sedition. The trial of women's rights activist Irene Fernandez entered its fourth year. She had been charged with maliciously publishing "false news" in a 1995 report detailing allegations of ill-treatment, sexual abuse and denial of medical care in camps holding detained migrant workers.

In May the Bar Council expressed concern at the growing number of civil defamation suits in which plaintiffs demanded or had been awarded unusually high levels of damages. In February the ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) set up an "anti-defamation" committee to study statements by opposition parties and to recommend the filing of defamation suits.

AI expressed concern at the failure of the government and judiciary to abide by the April ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) upholding the immunity from prosecution of the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy. In 1995, four defamation suits were filed against the Special Rapporteur for comments he made in his official capacity concerning complaints that certain business entities were able to manipulate the Malaysian courts. Proceedings were continuing at the end of 1999.

The use by the judiciary of contempt of court powers also raised concerns. In May Zainur Zakaria, one of Anwar Ibrahim's defence lawyers, was summarily sentenced to three months' imprisonment for filing an affidavit alleging that two public prosecutors had attempted to fabricate evidence. An appeal was lodged. In September the Court of Appeal ordered Canadian journalist Murray Hiebert to be jailed for six weeks for contempt; he had referred to the speed with which a defamation case involving the son of a judge had come to court. AI expressed concern that the right to freedom of expression was not being adequately protected by the courts.

Corporal punishment; death penalty

Caning, a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, was imposed throughout the year as an additional punishment to imprisonment. At least one person was sentenced to death during the year.

National Human Rights Commission

In July Parliament passed legislation to establish a Human Rights Commission for the protection and promotion of human rights in Malaysia. AI expressed concern that the Commission might fall short of the UN Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (Paris Principles). For instance, the Commission's mandate defines human rights primarily as those fundamental liberties enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution, which have been heavily qualified, rather than defining them in terms of international human rights standards.

AI country reports and visits

Report

• Malaysia: Human rights undermined – restrictive laws in a parliamentary democracy (AI Index: ASA 28/006/99)

Visits

AI delegates observed stages of the trials of Anwar Ibrahim and of Sukma Darmawan, and conducted research on arbitrary arrest, detention and ill-treatment in the context of the government's response to the reformasi movement.