SUHAKAM officers are on the ground, especially in rural areas, creating awareness of human rights issues, said chairman Othman Hashim.

The human rights body is also explaining to rural folk the issues surrounding the non-ratification of the controversial International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

Othman told The Malaysian Insight that the group’s goal is to move beyond advocacy and to make real changes to the system.

“Moving ahead, there are challenges. What we are doing now is engaging with folks from the rural areas,” he said.

He also said that it was crucial to engage with them to educate them about ICERD.

“The government can improve in certain areas. They are taking us seriously in looking at issues of human rights.”

In November 2018, The Malaysian Insight reported that Putrajaya’s fear of losing Malay support and facing attacks from the opposition were key reasons it decided not to ratify ICERD.

The issue blew up on October 26 when Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P. Waytha Moorthy said the federal government was committed to ratifying six human rights treaties, including ICERD, in the first quarter of this year.

Following the statement by Waytha, ICERD became a hot topic, fiercely debated among civil society groups and political parties, with many Malay groups and opposition parties claiming the convention’s ratification in Malaysia would undermine Malay rights and Islam as enshrined in the federal constitution.

Othman said they have been organising town hall sessions with fishermen in Port Dickson, Kelantan, Terengganu and other areas to listen to their grouses.

“The aim is to be on the ground to find out the issues they are facing, and to inform them of their rights to education, healthcare, housing and basic needs.”

Othman also said the government needed to have more engagement with civil society groups to get their message to the people.

“We believe the government wants to take human rights very seriously, otherwise it would not have made those promises in their election manifesto.

“The growing relationship between Suhakam and the government, and the credibility that Suhakam has with other civil society groups largely indicates that we have become an institution worth noticing.”

Othman is confident that the human rights situation in Malaysia will continue to improve given the current more open, free and transformative democracy. – September 12, 2019.