- I would like to extend my congratulations to Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) for its Annual Human Rights Report 2025 and its continued commitment in documenting the state of human rights in Malaysia.
- As highlighted by SUARAM Executive Director Azura Nasron, it has been almost 10 years since Malaysia experienced its first change of administration in 2018.
- In that time, Malaysia has gone through four different administrations. Yet despite these changes, the status quo on human rights has largely remained.
- There have been no significant structural reforms to address the root causes of human rights violations, nor meaningful progress in ensuring justice and redress for victims of abuse and state failure.
- Draconian laws that undermine the right to a fair trial remain in place. Custodial deaths continue to occur without adequate explanation. Police abuse, including the shooting and killing of so-called "suspects", persists. Enforcement agencies continue to use force unlawfully. Freedom of expression remains under disproportionate restriction. Racial discrimination continues to manifest across systems.
- These are not new issues. They have long been known, widely documented, and repeatedly raised by civil society.
- The failure to act is therefore not due to lack of awareness, but a lack of political will.
- Successive administrations have refused to acknowledge and address these systemic failures. The current Madani administration appears no different. Instead of breaking from the past, it risks continuing and normalising the same patterns of human rights violations.
- The global crisis we face today is rooted in the refusal to uphold international law and human rights principles. Malaysia should not be moving in the same direction.
- The Madani government must choose whether it will learn from the failures of its predecessors or be judged by the same standard.
- The opportunity to act is still present. But without urgency and sincerity.
Dobby Chew
Vice President, MUDA