THE Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has already started to prepare a list of candidates for the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), the prime minister’s special officer Kamarul Zaman Yusoff said today.

According to Kamarul, the list of candidates will be presented to the king but he did not specify a date.

“The vacancies only occurred on April 26 and this is just June 10.

“I must remind you that the Pakatan Harapan government also took two months to fill the positions, in 2019,” Kamarul said in a statement today.

The former Universiti Utara Malaysia lecturer said that the appointments can only be decided by the king on the prime minister’s recommendation, as provided in the Suhakam Act 1999.

Kamarul was responding to Klang MP Charles Santiago, who had criticised the delay in appointing Suhakam commissioners.

In speaking to The Malaysian Insight yesterday, Santiago claimed Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was dragging his feet over the appointments and had done little for human rights since his appointment last year.

However, Kamarul said the criticisms were unfair as the prime minister had on several occasions highlighted the importance of human rights in Malaysia.

“In his New Year’s message on December 31, 2021, the prime minister stated that his government was prepared to reform the judiciary and strengthen democracy.

“On Hari Wartawan 2022 (May 29), he said that the media must remain free,” Kamarul said, adding that the prime minister has also repeated his promise that “No one will be left behind” in his Keluarga Malaysia speeches.

As such, Kamarul said, Santiago’s claims were unjustified. – June 10, 2022.