Prims demand opportunistic: Suhakam
"They have a political agenda, so that makes it very hard for the commission," Harun told malaysiakini.
He was responding to an ultimatum issued by Prim on Wednesday. The party, whose registration with the Registrar of Societies is yet to be approved, is threatening legal action if the commission did not initiate an inquiry.
"We are doing something and we have been asking the pertinent authorities like the police and the Welfare Department for reports on the incident," Harun added.
The former Supreme Court judge said that the commission has been following up with the police but said that they did not want to start an inquiry yet as it may overlap with police investigations.
Racial clashes occurred in Petaling Jaya Selatan last March causing six deaths and injuring hundreds of people.
Prim, led by pro tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar, has been consistently asking for the 12-member commission to inquire into the clashes.
Harun, however, did not rule out an inquiry but warned that Suhakam would have to be cautious in the proceedings.
"If the inquiry were to be carried out, it would be a closed-door one. The police have said that they are investigating the matter so if we were to conduct an inquiry, then it would be overlapping as most of the witnesses would be the same," Harun said.
Asked to comment on Prim's two-week ultimatum, he said that was the party's choice.
"Anybody can go to the court to sue. The courts are open to everybody," Harun said, without elaborating on Suhakam's next move.
Selective inquiry
The letter of demand was addressed to Suhakam chairperson Musa Hitam, Harun, commissioners Prof Hamdan Adnan, Mehrun Siraj, and Anuar Zainal Abidin.
The letter accused the 17-month-old commission of selective inquiry and "bad faith", stating that while many issues had been quickly taken up by Suhakam, it had been 200 days since the clashes took place and there was still no response from the commission.
