The break-up of the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) and the mass arrests of 59 Malaysian human rights activists and the deportation of 46 foreign participants, including two Roman Catholic bishops, the Rev. Aloisuis Nobulo Somo of Japan and the Rev. Hilton Deakin of Melbourne, and three foreign journalists, Asiaweek correspondent Roger Mitton, Australian Broadcasting Corporation correspondent Catherine McGrath and journalist from The Nation, Bangkok, Sonny Imbamaj, are a blot on the human rights record of Malaysia.
The claim by the Deputy Home Minister, Datuk Megat Junid Megat Ayob that the police and the immigration authorities had not expected the ugly demonstration by the self-styled Malaysian Action Front comprising youth groups from UMNO, MCA and MIC causing the breakup of the APCET II meeting is not credible at all.
It is obvious from the course of events that the ugly demonstration was orchestrated with the full knowledge of the authorities concerned, so as to give a pretext to the government to stop the conference from taking place.
Yesterday was indeed a day of shame for Malaysia. The foreign participants from at least 15 countries, namely Indonesia, East Timor, Philippines, USA, Australia, Sri Lanka, Japan, Portugal, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, New Zealand, Thailand, South Korea and Bangladesh, had joined Malaysians in the Second APCET for a three-day dialogue to seek peaceful solutions to the 21-year East Timor conflict.
As the foreign participants said in a joint statement yesterday before the APCET II had to be forcibly adjourned:
“We came to this conference in peace to seek solutions to the tragedy in East Timor. We hoped to contribute to the peace of East Timor through dialogue and co-operation. We hoped that Malaysia, with its standing and track record in the international community for brokering and advocating peace in faraway Bosnia, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Mindanao would welcome and support our positive contributions.
“We were wrong.
“Today the APCET II conference opened successfully, but we are saddened and disappointed that the undemocratic forces of violence and oppression have ignored their own laws and forcibly closed us down. But, they have not silenced us. They have only strengthened our resolve.
“The Malaysian authorities have shown to all the world that democracy and human rights are not yet a reality in this country. Even without the alleged direct interventions by Indonesian President Suharto, Malaysia is so afraid of Suharto and his repressive regime that they are willing to ignore democratic principles and fundamental human rights.
“Freedom of speech and association are human rights that are accepted by the international community and enshrined in the United Nations Charter which Malaysia has ratified.
“We came in peace to find peace. Alas, not in Malaysia.”
DAP calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the 59 human rights activists and for a public inquiry to establish whether there was a conspiracy between the police and the Barisan youth wings using the appellation of Malaysian Action Front to break up the APCET II.
If the Government does not want to allow the APCET II meeting to be held, it should come out with a straightforward ban instead of orchestrating an ugly demonstration by youth wings of the ruling parties to break up the conference. The damage to Malaysia’s international reputation by such an orchestrated break-up of the conference is worse than a straightforward ban -for it is a demonstration of reckless and ruthless manipulation of law and order powers by those in authority.
Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, had said earlier this week that the government strongly object to the APCET II being held in Malaysia and would seek legal ways of stopping it.
Is yesterday’s breakup of the APCET II the result of the government’s search of “legal ways of stopping it”?
I do not know whether Anwar is privy to the ugly demonstrations staged by Barisan Nasional youth wings to give the police the justification to break up the meeting.
As the leading proponent of a civil society, Anwar owes Malaysians - as well as to his past as an human rights activist and NGO leader - a full explanation as to whether he had prior knowledge and had given his consent to the holding of the ugly demonstration by the Barisan Nasional youth wings to allow the police to step in to break up APCET II, deport the foreign participants and arrest the Malaysian human rights activists.
(10/11/96)