Dr M: How can I attend Suhakam event when it wants Icerd?
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will not be attending Suhakam's event to celebrate the International Human Rights Day in Petaling Jaya tomorrow.
He said this because of the differences in opinion regarding the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd).
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will not be attending the Human Rights Day celebration by the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) in Petaling Jaya tomorrow.
He said this because of the differences in opinion regarding the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd).
"I decided that we will not accept Icerd, (but) Suhakam wants to accept Icerd, so how can I go?" he asked during a press conference in Petaling Jaya this afternoon.
Mahathir was speaking after chairing the Pakatan Harapan presidential council meeting at the Bersatu headquarters.
The Suhakam event was originally planned for today, in conjunction with International Human Rights Day on Dec 10, but was postponed to tomorrow after the police highlighted potential security risks.
As Mahathir explained, the celebration would have coincided with the rally against Icerd in Kuala Lumpur today, where tens of thousands are celebrating Putrajaya's decision not to ratify the treaty.
LIVE reports: The Anti-Icerd rally in Kuala Lumpur
He said the police would have been forced to split their forces, and there were concerns that the Kuala Lumpur gathering would require the bulk of manpower.
"If there are two gatherings at the same time, the police will be forced to split their officers to two places.
"Because we are worried the (Kuala Lumpur) gathering will have a lot of people and require a lot of police officers, that is why we asked (Suhakam) to postpone to another day.
"It is not that we forbid demonstrations. You can demonstrate, but we asked them to postpone to another day so that the police are not stretched thin because there are not enough officers to monitor a huge rally," he said.
Rally to go on
Suhakam's event is now set to take place tomorrow at Padang Timur, Petaling Jaya, with Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof as the keynote speaker.
Mahathir also sarcastically thanked the "one million" people attending the rally at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, which was organised by Malay-Muslim NGOs and supported by Umno and PAS.
"We know today there is a rally which is attended by 'a million people'.
"I say thank you to them for gathering out of appreciation (for the government's decision to not ratify Icerd)," he said.
Mahathir himself first mooted ratification of the treaty in September, when he said Malaysia would accede to all other remaining human rights conventions, at the UN General Assembly.
Certain groups protested the move, citing fears that ratification would jeopardise the constitutional safeguards for the bumiputera, despite Putrajaya's initial assurances otherwise.
A statement from the Prime Minister's Office on Nov 23, however, said that the treaty would not be ratified to protect the "social contract agreed to by representatives of all races during the forming of the nation."
