KUALA LUMPUR: The Centre for Human Rights and Advocacy (CENTHRA) has criticised the 90 Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights' (APHR) members for breaching Asean's non-interference principle, when they called on Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah yesterday to allow the Parliament to reconvene.
CENTHRA research fellow Dr Abdul Hamid Abdul Murad urged the parliamentarians to immediately rescind their call to the King to reconvene the Parliament, and apologise to Malaysians and citizens of Asean nations for interfering with Malaysia's internal affairs.
In fact, he said, 25 out of the 90 individuals who signed the statement were only former parliamentarians and do not currently serve as lawmakers.
"Their conduct runs afoul of the founding principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of fellow member states, a cornerstone of Asean.
"By acting against one of the very core values of Asean, these so-called parliamentarians have shown themselves to be devoid of any credibility and certainly do not represent the esteemed regional body to which Malaysia and their own respective nations are members of," he said in a statement today.
The non-interference principle was first articulated in the 1967 Bangkok Declaration and was further reaffirmed in the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Corporation (TAC) as well as in the 1997 Kuala Lumpur Declaration.
The principle, which derives its principal expression from the UN Charter, reflects the determination of Asean member states to prevent external interference in order to ensure domestic and regional stability in the region.
Abdul Hamid stressed that although Malaysia was under a state of emergency, the rule of law and fundamental checks and balances for democratic institutions remain intact.
"The Malaysia of 2021 needs an emergency for various reasons, such as to better coordinate its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"As a sovereign nation, Malaysia has the right to conduct its affairs, including its response to this pandemic, as it sees fit.
"The structure of the emergency in place whereby members of both the existing government and opposition serve within a special committee to advise our Yang di-Pertuan Agong is not the same as the Majlis Gerakan Negara (Mageran) regime which existed momentarily during the 1969 emergency.
"It is via such a mechanism that vital checks and balances on our executive are preserved.
"It is not necessary, in particular during a pandemic, for a full-blown legislature to perform such functions, especially with opportunistic politicians and lobby groups more minded to continue their jostle for political positions, appointments and opportunities, rather than to care for the welfare of the people," he said.
Abdul Hamid said the country needed a functioning government to tackle high unemployment and slow economic growth to ensure Malaysians are entitled to rights and dignity as enshrined in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948.
"In order to provide these rights, a nation needs a functioning government which is able and willing to safeguard and implement policies that favour the creation of jobs and an environment that encourages business entities to generate new wealth.
"The call made by the parliamentarians concerned not only does not aid but also hinders Malaysia in this regard," he said.