LETTERS: Two days before the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken's recent visit to China, the State Department released their annual 2023 human rights report which also includes Malaysia.
The Malaysian chapter, as with other countries' chapters, is typically based among others on reports and feedback from a number of local NGOs and bodies in Malaysia.
It includes unlawful or arbitrary killings; torture or cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by government entities; arbitrary arrest and detention; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; restrictions on freedom of movement and many others.
It's quite a stretch coming from a nation which has been supporting ethnic cleansing, apartheid and even genocide of the Palestinians.
What's more deceitful is the colossal under-reporting of the numerous egregious violations of human rights since October 7 in Israel, West Bank and Gaza.
Destroyed protected facilities and killings of protected persons under the Geneva conventions were scarcely mentioned.
Indiscriminate bombings of hospitals, education and cultural facilities, civilian infrastructure, refugee camps etc. which have led to tens of thousands of children and women being killed were not highlighted and emphasised.
How can there not be specific segments and analysis on the ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide in Gaza is simply disingenuous.
The 2023 human rights report clearly highlights the hypocrisy of the US. A country who not only supports genocide but provides arms used for the commission of genocide on Palestinians, is lecturing others on human rights.
How ludicrous can this be?
This can clearly be seen by the stance taken by the US in resisting independent investigation of the violations of human rights by Israel in Gaza since October 7, including the findings of mass killings and graves.
It's insistence on relying on Israel's internal investigation and on its own crime over independent investigation such as from the United Nations is hard to swallow and clearly an abuse of process and law to hide the truth and the atrocities of its ally.
What the US is unwittingly doing with its abuse of human rights is that it is destroying the very essence of a rules-based order. Its persistent misuse of the veto power at the UN, which prolonged the genocide, undermines UN and international rules-based order.
Its threat to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to not issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his ilk for genocide and war crimes shows the US contempt of the rule of law while destroying the whole integrity of the human rights system and process.
For the above, the Malaysian Alliance of Civil Society Organisations (MACSA) calls on Suhakam and all human rights NGOs to suspend all human rights related collaborations with the US, especially through its embassy in Malaysia until the US makes Israel accountable for the genocide in Gaza.
The local NGOs must realize it's no longer acceptable to take money from the US while it abuses human rights processes to ensure genocide continues.
Lukman S Alias
Chairman, MACSA
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times