Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto called his remarks as “shocking” and “disastrous” for a nation that sits on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
Rahmat is reported to have said last week that he would ensure human rights in Malaysia will be shaped according to a “local mould” and be free from “political pressure”.
“This is a disastrous statement coming from the new Suhakam chief, the head of a powerful and influential commission that is supposed to act as the voice for all,” she said in a statement.
“He has lost the plot on what is the universality of human rights and that it should not be merely his understanding of it.”
Kasthuri said Rahmat stands corrected as the principles of human rights must be without compromise, defended and upheld without bias or discrimination according to international standards and values.
The new Suhakam ensemble, she said, must work hard to ensure that they maintain the commission’s current global “Grade A” status so as not to be looked at as a “global embarrassment”.
This status allows Malaysia to join an international peer review on human rights, especially the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
“A downgrade to ‘Grade B’ will mean Malaysia will lose that privilege and is unlikely to sit in the UNHRC as well,” she said.
Kasthuri said the new Suhakam team must lobby the government to table the Suhakam 2021 human rights report in Parliament so that it can be debated.
She said Suhakam must also conduct regular consultations with MPs, parliamentary special select committees (PSSC), and other relevant stakeholders in implementing the human rights agenda.
“They must also lobby for additional budget allocations for Suhakam that must be included in the national budget. The commissioners must also urge the government to ratify six remaining UN human rights conventions.”
Rahmat, a professor of law at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UTM), has come under fire since his appointment for having co-authored a paper in 2019 which convinced the Conference of Rulers to reject ratification of the Rome Statute, by which Malaysia would have to accede to the International Criminal Court (ICC).