“We hope the new unity government under Anwar Ibrahim will make the report public and take the recommendations seriously,” said Suaram executive director, Sevan Doraisamy, at a press conference here today.

The now-defunct five-member council, headed by former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, was formed in 2018 after Pakatan Harapan (PH) came to power and was meant to advise the government on economic issues.

Its 100-day report was submitted to then-prime minister Mahathir on Aug 7, 2018, but Mahathir had repeatedly maintained that the government must be cautious about deciding whether to make the report public as some of its findings needed further investigations by the authorities.

Suaram was one of several NGOs that submitted a report to the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) as part of proposed recommendations on human rights issues to the PH government at the time.

Sevan said Anwar’s government faced several issues which required “urgent attention”, such as the right to a fair trial, the death penalty, access to justice, freedom of expression and assembly, as well as free and fair elections.

He said Suaram hoped for institutionalised and continuous engagement with the government to share its expertise in promoting human rights.

Suaram’s right to justice coordinator Wong Yan Ke said “inconsistent and non-transparent information” was an issue the group had constantly faced while monitoring data.

He attributed this lack of data to the government’s unwillingness to investigate human rights cases, such as the “alarming” number of custodial deaths.

Wong noted that while the Criminal Investigation Unit on Deaths in Custody issued press statements whenever deaths in police custody occurred, there was an absence of any follow-up reports.