TNAG-0652-FCO40-801-Planning-Staff-papers-on-human-rights-and-foreign-policy-cou-1977 — Page 136

CONFIDENTIAL

MALAYSIA

Report by British High Commission, Kuala Lumpur

General Observations

1. Compared with the 1960s the style of Government is different. After the race riots of 1969 the Government pushed through laws that restrict freedom of speech in public, and reinforce the privileged position of the Malays. But although the Malays are nominally privileged, wealth is still concentrated in Chinese and expatriate hands. Social scientists detect a trend towards a less tolerant

society permeated increasingly by Islamic bigotry. If the Malays felt that their privileges were under serious challenge, and in particular if their virtual monopoly of political power was threatened, human rights would suffer. Indeed there could be racial bloodletting again.

2. There is a Malaysian human rights Committee dominated by politicians who have been, or believe they soon will be, the victims of arbitrary detention under the Internal Security Act.

Right No.

(i) Malaysia is still confronted by a

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Communist terrorist movement and under the Internal Security Act (inherited from HMG) the Government is empowered to imprison people without trial for a period of up to two years. Our estimate is that there are at any one time between one thousand and two thousand suspected CTS or their supporters under arrest, but none of them are detained without trial for longer than the two year period. In addition the ISA is sometimes used against inconvenient political figures or student leaders. At present there are about ten or twelve people in this category under arrest. (The population of Malaysia is about twelve million.)

(ii) Torture is not used at all by the

police though some people get roughly handled in police stations.

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(iii) Slavery is non-existent.

CONFIDENTIAL

/(iv)

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