Proposals made by the Human Rights Commission and how pressure can be applied onto the police and government to adopt them will be the focus of a forum to be organised by a coalition of civil society groups in Penang on Saturday.

"We have invited several groups such as Aliran, Gerakan and MCA as well as leaders from opposition parties such as Keadilan, PRM and DAP," said Save Ourselves (SOS) Penang secretary Ong Boon Keong in a statement today.

Suhakam's proposals and reports have been actively debated by civil society groups and NGOs at one end and the government at the other.

While civil society movements have urged the human rights body to adopt a harder line on human rights violations in its reports, the government has accused it of being 'biased, unrealistic and Western-influenced'.

Ong said the forum was being held in conjunction with the Malaysian Human Rights Day which falls on Sept 9.

He said that participants at Saturday's forum would be looking at the proposals and findings of three recent reports released by Suhakam.

"The three are Suhakam's annual report, its freedom of assembly report and the report on the 100,000 People's Gathering at the Kesas highway," Ong said.

Suhakam's annual report was released in April, the freedom of assembly report on Aug 3 and the Kesas report on Aug 20.

All three reports received strong reactions, particularly the Kesas report which pinpointed police as human rights violators during the opposition-organised rally in Klang on Nov 5 last year.

Civil society pressure

Ong said the forum would study recommendations made in the three reports and how civil society groups could apply pressure onto the police to adopt the proposals.

"Suhakam is only allowed to go as far as to make reports and recommendations. It does not have any enforcement power so civil society must step in to apply pressure onto the authorities in terms of accepting the recommendations,"Ong said.

Recommendations made by Suhakam in the reports include calling on the police to be less restrictive in terms of freedom to assemble as well as to review laws such as the Internal Security Act and the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

"I think that if the views of Suhakam were to be taken seriously there would be many changes in this country," Ong said, adding that he also believed that if the police were to adopt the recommendations, they would be 'able to perform more professionally'.

"The police should perform their duties professionally and not for political reasons. Suhakam gives them an opportunity to free themselves from political encumbrances," said Ong.